


It's a Hard Love

by rangersandlegends



Series: Borrowing Problems from the Past [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Season 3 AU, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-24 18:39:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 45,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12018693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangersandlegends/pseuds/rangersandlegends
Summary: Oliver's daughter time travels to 2015 in order to continue protecting her city, but nothing is as she expects. She may be a Queen, but nothing has prepared her for this.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if this is good or not, so please comment! Will be posting a chapter a day, hopefully getting longer as we go.

When I landed, I had to squint. It was seriously bright, like middle-of-the-day levels of sunshine. Once my eyes adjusted, I saw I was in an alley. A smelly, dirty, dingy alley. I whipped out my tablet to get a sense of when I was, and waited for it to slowly connect to the nearest cell tower. It refused to cooperate. No big deal. After some quick adjustments, it was set to communicate with a much older network. And just like that, the date popped up: February 5, 2015. I took a deep breath. Things could get very complicated. But they weren’t going to, I decided. As of right now, finding Tommy was all that mattered.

 

The big rules of time travel were simple.-If possible, interact with no one from the time period, only other Travellers. If you can’t manage that, at least avoid those who are consequential to the timeline. And, above all else, avoid interacting with yourself or your family, past or future. This was hardly my first rodeo, as far as temporal travelling went. I was a Queen, after all. 

 

I quickly scaled the nearby fire escape to get a lay of the land. I looked out over the cityscape: still in Star, or I guess at this time it was Starling, City. I would recognize my hometown anywhere. Specifically, I knew I was in the Glades. Not the best part of town, but the one I was the most familiar with. And the one that would be most helpful to me right now. A certain hero’s hide-out was currently under a nightclub in this very sector: the Green Arrow. Or just the Arrow. Man, I had got to keep up with the old terminology. Once I had my bearings, I made sure my mask and hood were properly in place before beginning to dart from one rooftop to the next, heading toward Verdant.

 

I had to admit that a small part of me was excited to see the old lair. I had heard a bunch of stories about it, but it’s not like anyone had taken any pictures to document it. Plus, it was the middle of the day, so no one would be down there. Perfect time to access the computers. They would obviously be the newest models, but that wasn’t saying much. They were still the only ones I was sure would have the programs and processing power I needed to start my search. Staying in the shadows and keeping my head on a swivel, I managed to make my way to Verdant. I had to laugh at the cheesy logo the club had, but it was surely rather “hip” for the times. Finding the back door with ease, I got my tablet near enough to it to run a quick unlocking program. My tablet came up with the code almost instantaneously. Man, this thing worked like a skeleton key around here. The lair’s current occupants would probably have a heart attack if they knew how easy it was for someone like me to sneak in. Not like there were a lot of Travellers running around. Hopefully.

 

I snuck down the stairs, and quickened my pace once I saw that the lair was unlit. No one was down here. I didn’t turn any lights on myself, but took careful note of how the desk chair was arranged and what programs the computers were currently running. It looked like a pretty complex algorithm cross-referencing dates and locations to determine the identity and where-abouts of a potential drug lord. Nothing about the case seemed familiar to me.  _ Not like it matters _ , I reminded myself,  _ you shouldn’t be leaving even the slightest hint to help the team solve this, or any, case _ . I opened up the security camera footage and put it on a loop, then put a pause to the search algorithm so that all the processing power would be put toward my query: a facial recognition scan. I grabbed the cable I needed to plug in my tablet, not wanting to deal with getting my tablet aligned with the lair’s network. I was glad that USB ports hadn’t changed in all this time. I sorted through the files on my tablet until I found what I needed.

 

I tapped my fingers around the JPEG to frame it the way I needed, and sighed. I let my fingers linger over his face.  _ Oh Tommy, I’m so sorry _ . I was the one who was supposed to protect him, and I let him, and everyone else, down. It was my fault he had been brought to this time period in the first place.  _ I promise I’ll find you and bring you back, and make sure that he pays for what he did _ . I uploaded Tommy’s photo into the mainframe and started running facial recognition in every CCTV camera in Starling. By my math, his kidnapper couldn’t have more than twelve hours on me. I jumped in the time portal almost instantaneously behind him, after all. That meant Tommy and that cursed speedster had to have gone through Starling at some point in the last twelve hours. And, considering the speedster chose where and when the portal led, it wouldn’t make sense for the speedster to have gone too far from the destination he chose.

 

There were a lot fewer CCTV cameras in this time, I started to realize, and almost none in the area of the Glades the portal had been in. Plus, the facial recognition software was old, the mainframe was slow, and he could’ve raced Tommy through with his speed meaning these cursed things wouldn’t catch him! I almost banged my fists on the table, but didn’t want to make a sound. After twenty minutes, it was clear the cameras hadn’t picked anything up in the last twelve hours in the Glades. I connected the search to my tablet, so I’d get pinged if it happened to find anything. I made sure everything was the way I had found it. Wouldn’t want my mom to see what I had been up to on her screens.


	2. Chapter 2

Once I was outside, I headed back up to the rooftops. I had a few ideas of where to head next; it was time to beat the streets, see if the speedster teamed up with anyone in this time. Someone had to know something, and I was willing to find them. The sun was just beginning to set, making it much easier for me to get around. I headed toward the docks, figuring times couldn’t have changed too much; this is where all the baddies were bound to hang out. I hadn’t gotten too far before I heard the screaming.

 

“No, please, help!” It was clearly a female voice. I moved over to the side of the roof, crouched down, and peeked over the edge. A burly man was holding a gun to the petite woman’s head, and grunting something at her that I couldn’t pick up. I froze. 

 

Stopping the mugging would be so easy. The physicality of it was of no concern to me. The question was what the right thing to do was. I knew the rules of time travel. If I were to interfere in this mugging, it could change the course of this woman’s life. Even if she were only a minor player in all of history, it could have a butterfly effect. If she were important to the timeline, or if this mugger was supposed to kill her, I couldn’t imagine the effects. Sure, the Legends got away with stuff like this everyday, but they had Gideon helping them out with the timeline. I watched as the mugger waved his gun about some more. The guy was clearly posturing. 

 

I thought about all the lectures I had heard about time travel, from speedsters and Legends and even my own father, but then another voice popped into my head: my mom’s. I had been a little girl, just starting to hack into government databases. It seemed like something that should be wrong; I knew it was illegal, but I saw my mom doing it all the time. I also knew that hacking into these databases was often the only thing that kept my friends and family alive. My mom could see the choice was weighing on me. She spun my chair around and crouched down so that we were at eye level.  _ If you have to choose between  something that feels right here _ , as she pointed at my head _ , or here _ , and she pointed at my heart,  _ always choose here _ . I still felt her fingertip touching my heart when I had a difficult choice to make.

 

I checked out the mugging again. I only had a few more seconds in which to act. I knew the right choice. Turning on my voice modulator, I called out.

 

“Hey!” The mugger looked up at me. I hurried down the fire escape and landed a few feet from him. He pointed his gun at me, but if I had learned anything from my few moments watching, I knew he wasn’t trigger-happy. Before we had time to start a conversation, I pulled his right wrist toward me, squeezed, forced it up, and knocked the gun out of his hand. From there, it was no problem at all to use his forward momentum against him. I moved behind him, continuing his push forward and knocked his head against the wall. I didn’t need to check to know he was out like a light. I turned to the woman, who, as expected, was standing, shaking, and staring.

 

“Call the police. And don’t go out alone at night.” I made my way back up the fire escape and watched over the woman to make sure she came to her senses and was able to make the call. Once I heard her report her mugging, I was out of there. No need to interfere any more with time than I already had. Next stop: the docks.

 

\------------------------------

 

After a few hours of pounding the streets, I found that my speedster friend hadn’t made contact with any of the major gangs or the Triad. I had done my work carefully: no arrows in anyone, not even the smallest of blades left behind. I had threatened everyone to keep silent about my presence. And, even if word did get out that a hooded vigilante with a quiver was hitting the streets, they could chalk it up to Arrow or Arsenal. The one place I hadn’t gone was the Bratva. I figured there was very little chance that the speedster had gone there, and too high of a probability that the appearance of a masked figure speaking in fluent Russian would be reported to Starling’s Bratva captain. 

 

I was exhausted. I had been up for more than 24 hours straight at this point and hadn’t eaten in almost as long. Even though I still had no leads on Tommy, I knew it was better to get some rest than keep going at this full-force. I clearly needed to rethink my strategy, sit back and analyze why the speedster had taken Tommy to this time and place to begin with, and work from there. Once I found a rooftop with enough cover, I curled up behind a large ventilation unit and started to put together the facts.

 

The speedster must’ve gone through a lot of planning to kidnap Tommy like that. He would have had to have known where Tommy lived, and how and when to get to him. Plus, he chose this time period and place when he jumped through the portal. He wanted to bring Tommy to Starling in 2015.  But what could he do with Tommy here that he couldn’t do with me? I was more valuable, as I was more skilled and I knew more about time travel. So, if the speedster hadn’t wanted Tommy, then he must’ve wanted me. Grabbing Tommy was the guarantee that I would come through the portal with him. He had lured me here. But for what?

 

That was as far as I was going to get tonight. I curled up in the tightest ball I could and waited for sleep to come. 

 

\----------------------------------------------------

 

_ Thump _ . I was awoken by the sound of someone landing on my roof.  _ Thwick.  _ They had nocked an arrow. I stayed as still as I could. But the someone quickly turned the corner of the ventilation unit and had their arrow pointed at me. A very green someone. 

 

My dad.


	3. Chapter 3

“Don’t move.” It was a voice I knew all too well. Low and growling, each word separated with a bite, making the pauses more threatening than the words themselves. When I was younger, it was the voice he used on me when I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar. As I had gotten older, it had failed to intimidate me. Now, it seemed almost laughable that he would ever do anything to hurt me.  _ No _ , I corrected myself,  _ my father would never hurt me _ . The man standing in front of me was another matter entirely. Once I had run through my train of thought, the Arrow began his interrogation.

 

“Who are you and what are you doing in my city?” I slowly moved my hand to turn my voice modulator back on.

 

“I’m no one you need concern yourself with.”

 

“Why did you stop that mugging?”

 

“Same reason you would have. It was the right thing to do.”

 

“And why have you been making your way through the gangs?”

 

“Nothing different from what you’ve been doing.” I just needed to get out of here and let this night slowly fade from Dad’s mind. The night he ran into a blue vigilante he never saw again. 

 

“The SCPD is looking for you.” Now there was something. Despite my hopes, that girl must’ve thought I looked too distinctive to be confused with a current vigilante. Still, maybe there was a chance I could get through this night without messing up the timeline for good. “I should bring you in.” 

 

Well, that was problematic to say the least. 

 

“That’s in neither of our best interests.”

 

“And what makes you think you know my best interest?”

 

I summoned all of my bravado, and channeled my mother. 

 

“Don’t worry about it, Oliver.”

 

Crap. Crap crap crap.

 

Just like that, Dad released his arrow.

 

I couldn’t help myself. Out of instinct I caught it. Dad wasted no time in coming after me. I was able to dodge his first few punches and kicks, recognizing his opening gambit immediately. It’s not like he and I had never fought before. We’d sparred hundreds of times, with me winning more and more the older I got. My youth and energy matched his maturity and experience. My agility for his strength. After a few more strikes, I realized the advantage I had in this fight: I knew my opponent. And knowledge was the ultimate power.

 

I was done playing defense. I switched up my dodges for a few well placed kicks. Dad blocked half of them, but I got good shots at his chest and right knee. The right knee was a historically weak spot for him, but I guess that history hadn’t happened yet. He rebounded quickly, surprising me, and glanced a blow off my head. My hood fell off.  Dad staggered back for a moment. 

 

“How... old are you?” Like I was going to admit he was losing a fight to a seventeen-year-old. 

 

“It’s rude to ask a girl her age.” My mother would be proud of how far my pithey battle responses had come. I used his disorientation to dig a quick knee in his gut, followed by the other knee to his head when he doubled over. I didn’t want to seriously hurt him, but I needed to get away from this situation before it spiraled out of control. Well, further out of control. As he tried to regain his balance, he continued his questioning.

 

“How do you know my name?” Not wise of him, confirming that I was right in calling him Oliver, but no less wise than me doing it in the first place. I wasn’t concerned with answering his question, opting instead to go with a roundhouse kick that he was able to avoid, followed by an elbow toward the shoulder that he grabbed. He pinned my arm behind my back, and his hold was too tight for me to break. This version of Dad was much stronger than the one I was accustomed to. 

 

“How do you know my name?” This time he pronounced every word, with those dangerous separations in between each. I said nothing, just kicking out my legs behind me, trying to catch him off guard. He instead pushed me forward, making me lose balance and fall. He was on top of me in seconds, pinning me down. If we were sparring, I’d concede my defeat at this point. But since this was a real fight, he grabbed an arrow from his quiver and stabbed my arm with it. I felt the numbness of a tranq arrow before everything went black. 


	4. Chapter 4

Was I awake or asleep? All I could hear was the soothing sound of my mother’s voice. If I kept my eyes closed, maybe I could stay dreaming. It wouldn’t be so bad to just stay here and listen to the soft murmurs. But the sound of it was getting clearer and clearer and louder and louder the more conscious I became of it. That’s when I remembered. I was in Star City, 2015. My wrists were zipcuffed to a straight-backed chair. I was as awake as I could be, but they didn’t need to know that. I kept my eyes closed and my breathing steady, and I listened.

 

“What else was I supposed to do with her, Felicity?” That was my father’s voice, and from the sound of it he was in the middle of a heated argument with my mother.

 

“Oh, I don’t know, Oliver, anything but sling her over your back and bring her to your secret lair! The police are looking for her!”

 

“I’m aware of that. But she knows my identity, so I need to figure out what else she knows.”

 

“And how exactly are you going to figure that out? Are you going to torture a young girl?” There was silence here, and I could only imagine my father’s patented grimace when my mother had bested him in an argument. “From what I can tell, she hasn’t done anything wrong. She’s probably just a copycat vigilante with a little bow and arrow trying to be just like her hero. I think it’s cute.”

 

“It’s not cute. She’s putting herself in harm’s way.”

 

“I don’t know. The way she kept pace with you, it seems she can handle herself.” Another point for my mother. The silence was interrupted by footsteps down the stairs.

 

“What’s this I hear about you almost being taken out by a little girl?” Dig! I kept myself from reacting to the relief I had at his familiar voice.

 

“She wasn’t a...Felicity, have you found anything on facial recognition?” Nice diversion, Dad. That’s when I realized I wasn’t wearing my mask. Well, they could run all the facial recognition they wanted on me, but they wouldn’t come up with anything. I had gotten all I could from the conversation, plus the distraction had given me enough time to work my way out of the zip cuffs. I pretended to come to. 

 

“Where am I?” Like I didn’t already know I had been returned to the lair. I was facing the back wall so I couldn’t see the whole operation, but I wasn’t born yesterday. Technically, I hadn’t even been born yet.

 

“I’ll be asking the questions around here.” My dad, using his voice modulator again. I needed a strategy. As far as I could tell, I could either make a run for it or stay and spin a story. It was doubtful I’d get through both Dad and Dig, which left answering the questions as my only option. “What’s your name?”

 

“Anna.” It was always my name when I was undercover, so I answered to it as easily as I did my own. 

 

“What are you doing in Starling City?”

 

“It’s my home.” Truthful enough.

 

“Where’d you get your arrows?”

 

“I made them.” Also true.

 

“And your suit?” This one was more difficult.

 

“....A friend of mine made it for me.” 

 

“Who trained you?” 

 

“A guy good with a bow and arrow.” 

 

“How did you know who I am?”

 

“Oliver Queen goes missing for five years, comes back to Starling and the very next week the vigilante shows up? Not hard to figure out.” I heard Dad deactivate his voice modulator and step around so he could face me. His hood was down and his mask was off.  It was like seeing him for the first time. He was so young, with shorter hair and only a little stubble. His hair had no gray in it, and his face had no wrinkles. This wasn’t the man who had killed Ra’s al Ghul, but a man who lost to him in a sword fight. This wasn’t the man who took charge of an entire city, but a man who couldn’t even hold onto his family’s legacy. This wasn’t the man who had raised three kids with love and compassion, but the man who could barely save his sister. There was no starker reminder that this man wasn’t my father, not yet.

 

“Were you just trying to get my attention, or were you trying to get yourself killed?”

 

“Neither. I have my own problems that don’t involve you.” And I really wish this wasn’t one of them.

 

“I’m not letting you leave here until I figure out who you are.”

 

“Fine. Then I’ll just leave of my own accord.” I got up out of the chair and made my way for the exit. I knew Dad would stop me before I had made it, but I wanted him to know who he was messing with. It was the only way he’d believe what I was about to say. 

 

Dad chased me down, and grabbed my arm. There was no fighting him off, nor did I need to. I knew exactly how this was about to play out, and that I was possibly screwing up all of time, but I needed to find Tommy. Maybe I could play this to that end.

 

“Who are you?” He turned me around so I had no choice but to look him in the eye. He looked so confused, with his eyes near slits and his head tilted to the side. I’d seen him give me that look before, like I was a puzzle he just couldn't figure out. At least this time there was no disappointment, only curiosity. Curiosity I was about to sate as I uttered the truth.

 

“I’m a Traveller... from the future.”


	5. Chapter 5

“No way.” I turned toward the sound of my mother’s voice and saw her with her mouth gaping open. “What? You think I’m not going to freak out about a time traveller from the future?”

 

Dig was glaring at her while observing the usual silence he employed for situations he didn’t understand. I turned toward my dad to see what his response would be. “How can you be...what are you….okay.” He took a deep breath and turned toward Mom, obviously hoping she would take over. And take over she did.

 

“Do they have flying cars in the future? Has the Riemann Hypothesis been solved yet? Ooh who’s the Doctor on Doctor Who in your time? And what-” Dad had to cut her off.

 

“If you’re from the future, can you prove it?”

 

“I’m sure you’ve gotten a chance to examine my tablet. You tell me what you think.” My tablet was top of the line where I was from, and my mom would obviously be able to recognize it was leaps and bounds ahead of anything she’d ever seen. 

 

“I was wondering about that.” She turned toward Dad. “The tech is beyond anything I’ve ever seen, Oliver. I can’t even get it to work. If anyone’s from the future, it’s her.” Dad’s grip loosened on me somewhat, as if Mom’s words were reason enough to trust me. But, given his generally untrusting nature in this time period, it clearly wasn’t enough to release me outright. He brought me back over to Mom’s workstation and gave me my tablet back. He pointed toward it and raised his eyebrows at me. I got the gist of his gesture and unfolded the tablet. I swiped across the screen a few times to show them I could operate it just fine. Mom jumped up to start looking at what I was doing. I handed it back off to her to play with. I didn’t worry about her gaining any future knowledge, as only swipes from my fingerprint could activate it. 

 

“Let’s say you are from the future. Why are you here?” Dad clearly seemed uncomfortable with the idea, but if Mom was going along with it, so was he. 

 

“It’s kind of a long story.” Dad let go of me.

 

“I’ve got time.” I figured I may as well make myself comfortable, and sat down in Mom’s chair, which got a few looks from the peanut gallery. I took a deep breath and dove in.

 

“I’m a vigilante. I fight crime, especially threats the police can’t deal with. Where I’m from, one of those threats is a speedster, a metahuman like the Flash. He calls himself Momentum. Usually speedsters are the Flash’s territory, but this one is different. He only appears in Star….ling City, and it’s rare that he shows up at all. Yesterday, or what was yesterday for me, he appeared in the city. Speeding into businesses to rob the tills, whipping up a few dust storms, that sort of thing. Nothing that I couldn’t handle - at least that’s what I thought. When I finally had him cornered, he started taunting me. Basic villain stuff. Before I could lay a hand on him, he had sped away and came back with my little brother.” I paused. The memory was almost overwhelming. Him holding Tommy out in front of him, with his arm firmly around Tommy’s neck. I could still hear his voice.  _ I’ll make sure you never see your brother again, Queenie _ . 

 

Dad must’ve noticed me fighting for composure. “What did he do with your brother?”

 

“Momentum has the ability to travel through time.” Best not to let them know the ability was innate in speedsters, since even the Flash didn’t know that yet. “He created a time portal and took my brother through it. I followed him. That time portal led to here and now. I just want to find my brother and make Momentum pay for what he did.” There was a bit of silence, until my mom came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

 

“I’m sorry you had to go through that. But we’re going to help you get your brother back.” Typical of my mom, to promise help from the team without even checking with my dad. I glanced over at him. He seemed lost.

 

“I’m sorry about your brother, I really am, but if you need help dealing with...with an evil speedster, then I’m not sure we can do much to help you. Why don’t you ask the Flash for help?”

 

“Because I can’t mess up the timeline in that way. There are certain events in Central City that need to remain the way they are.” I couldn’t meddle with the beginning of the Flash’s journey, and I doubted Eobard Thawne would be willing to provide me any help either.

 

“How do you think we can help you, then?” Dig had finally wrapped his head around events enough to join in the conversation, I supposed. And if both he and Mom were willing to help, it was only a matter of time before Dad caved as well. 

 

“Ooh, I have some ideas!” my mom piped in helpfully. “We could run facial recognition to see if that speedster or your brother was in the area.”

 

“Yeah, I already tried that, actually.” I spun around to face the monitors and pulled up my old search. “I haven’t gotten any hits yet, but I suppose I could try expanding the search parameters.” 

 

“Wait, how did you….how did you already run a search on my computers?”

 

“I came in here earlier to do a work-up and kept the results on my tablet.”

 

“No, you didn’t,” she retorted emphatically. “If you had run a search, I would’ve noticed. There’s nothing you can hide on my computers from me.” 

 

“Actually, this model has a bug in it that allows me to hide search histories in a dark space.”

 

“But these are the newest models,” my mom whined.

 

“New to you,” I murmured under my breath, while expanding the parameters for my search. 

 

“So you know my identity, you know the location of the bunker and how to get in, and you’re a vigilante?” And here we go. My dad wasn’t always the quickest when it came to temporal phenomena, but he always got there eventually. “Tell me, Anna, do we happen to know each other in the future?” Double crap.


	6. Chapter 6

How had I managed myself to get into trouble this deep this fast? Travellers shouldn’t be revealing family connections, so that’s what I decided to avoid.

 

“I help out your team occasionally.”  _ If, by occasionally, we mean 24/7.  _ “It means I know who you are and where to find you.” 

 

“So we’re friends?” Leave it to my mom to draw such an amicable meaning from my vague description. 

 

“More like...allies. You helped me out a lot when I was first starting out, though.”  _ Technically not untrue. And parents aren’t friends. _

 

“Is that why you fight with a bow and arrow? Am I the one that taught you?” There was a note of pride in my dad’s voice, which warmed me up inside.

 

“You just wanted to make sure I had a weapon when I went out at night.”  _ And because I’m your daughter _ . 

 

“Why didn’t you stay on as part of the team, like Roy?” A good question from Dig. I don’t know why I expected everyone to just accept my story part and parcel, but lying on your feet was part of having a secret identity, right? It just so happened that my secret identity now had layers.

 

“It’s complicated. In the future, things are different. It’s better if we remain separated.” This was a load of nonsense, but a rule of being both a Traveller and a vigilante with a secret identity is keep your story simple. And, when confronted, the line “knowing too much about the future is dangerous” is always a good defense.

 

“How are we supposed to trust you? Even if we believe you’re from the future, why should I believe we’re allies?” I was going to assume the line “I love you Dad and I’d never betray you” wasn’t going to work here, so I’d have to come up with something else.

 

I grabbed my collar and stretched it out, reaching with my other hand to pull out the pendant that hung on a silver chain. It was a small green arrow, made of the same composite that Dad’s arrows were made of. 

 

“You gave me this on the day of my first mission without you.”  _ And I haven’t taken it off since _ . Dad stepped closer to me to examine the necklace. 

 

“Amazing,” he murmured. He walked over to one of the supply cabinets and slid open a drawer. He reached in toward the back and pulled out the exact same necklace. “I just made this.”

 

“Do you trust me now?”

 

“Yes.” Dig and Mom looked shocked by the quick turn of events, but I wasn’t. I knew how important the pendant was to Dad. He wouldn’t have given it to just anyone. Besides my suit and my bow, it was one of my two most prized possessions, given to me by two people I loved more than anything. I tucked the pendant back below my neckline.

 

“So will you help me get my brother back?”

 

“If you think I can help you, then I’ll do whatever I have to, yes.” He seemed resigned to the prospect, and I was wondering how much he’d been able to figure out by my reveal. Not too much, I hoped. Especially if I kept from him exactly when in the future I was from.

 

“Alright, so we’re going to go fight an evil speedster that we can’t find! Go team!” Sarcasm aside, my mom had a point. The odds were against us, seeing as we couldn’t even track Momentum down.

 

“Lyla might be able to help with that. The ARGUS satellites could have picked up on something that CCTV couldn’t. She’s at home. Let me go talk to her.” As Dig turned to go, my dad interjected.

 

“Actually, why don’t we all head over to your place? I’m sure Anna could use a bite to eat and a place to crash.”

 

“I’m not doing any of those things until I have my brother, safe and sound. I can go with Lyla to ARGUS, help her trace speedster energy signatures.”

 

“We’ll see what Lyla says about that. For now, let’s all head over there so we can brief her.” I was just as hard-headed as my father, so I knew there was no use in arguing with him.

 

“Fine.” Still, I would find out a way to make sure I got access to ARGUS’ systems. I would do whatever it took to find Tommy.


	7. Chapter 7

Dad gave me back my weapons and led me wordlessly to Dig’s van and gestured for me to climb in the back. In any other circumstances, a teenage girl getting in the back of two bulky men’s black van would probably be a mistake, but these were two men that I trusted with my life. Mom had already gone home in her old mini-cooper, saying she had to be at work soon,  and I was left alone with Dad and Dig. I glanced out the window and watched as we wound through the familiar streets of the Glades towards what I could only assume was Dig and Aunt Lyla’s apartment. 

 

It didn’t seem my dad was too keen on starting a conversation, and I couldn’t think of any topics I could possibly bring up that wouldn’t give away more information than I was comfortable with. I saw Dig glancing at me in the rearview mirror far more than was necessary, and could only imagine what he was thinking about me. Was he wondering what part of the future I was from? Was he doubting his best friend’s decision to trust me? Was he worried about inviting me into his home? I wasn’t sure if it was best to avoid eye contact or meet his eyes directly in the mirror. I decided on avoidance, so as not to seem threatening. 

 

After twenty minutes of awkwardness, we finally got to Dig’s place. I followed him and Dad up the stairs and into his apartment, where I was immediately met with the sound of a baby crying. Aunt Lyla walked into the living room, carrying a fussy baby on her hip. She was bouncing him as she walked him, and that seemed to calm him down.

 

“Johnny, you’re back.” She glanced at me and Dad. “And you brought some friends with you.”

 

“Sorry for dropping by unannounced, but we need your help.” Dig certainly did get right to the point. He held out his hands to Aunt Lyla and took the baby from her. Logically, I knew who the baby was, but seeing with my own eyes was something else. 

 

“Anna, this is my son, John Jr.” My best friend, the feared vigilante Connor Hawke, was a baby with spit-up on his onesie. I wanted to take a selfie with him so badly.  _ Tommy _ , I reminded myself.  _ You’re not here for games _ . I walked up to John and did my best to shake his hand, which mostly involved me grabbing his tight fist and moving it around a bit.

 

“Nice to meet you, John.” Then, because I couldn’t resist, I added, “You’re such a good boy, yes you are, yes you are,” in my most obnoxious baby voice. Take that, Mr. “I am the Night.” I then turned to Aunt Lyla, and presented my hand as well. 

 

“Hi, my name is Anna.” Aunt Lyla gave me a sharp once-over before returning the handshake.

 

“Lyla Michaels. My husband says you need my help?” I was about to answer her question, when my dad interjected, again.

 

“Actually, Lyla, maybe we could talk about this over dinner?”

 

“How about breakfast? It is five in the morning after all.” I balked. I’d been here way too long. The sooner we could get to ARGUS, the better. But I definitely needed food. I hadn’t eaten since before I’d jumped through the time portal. “Johnny, why don’t you put Junior back to bed? I’ll make us some eggs.”

 

As Aunt Lyla got the food ready, Dad made small talk with her about the drug lord they were looking for, the one my mom had been searching for earlier. The case was still unfamiliar to me, so I turned my mind toward speedster energy signatures, and everything I knew about tracing them. Mom had learned a lot from STAR Labs, and taught that to me in turn, so it would just be a matter of creating a program on the ARGUS systems.

 

“Anna?” my dad asked. 

 

“Yes?”

 

“Lyla was just asking you about where you’re from.”

 

“Oh, sorry. I’m from here, Starling City. Born and raised.”

 

“How do you know Oliver?” she asked.

 

“That’s a long story.”   
  


“I’m guessing from your get-up that he’s training you.”

 

“Oh, um, you could say that.” Aunt Lyla sat down with the skillet of eggs just as Dig came in from John’s room. She grabbed salsa and cheese from the fridge and started dishing out the food. Once she was done, she was ready to get down to business.

 

“So, Anna, what can I help you with?” Dad and Dig turned toward me expectedly. I stopped putting salsa on my eggs so I could respond properly. Dad gave me a strange look. I ignored him and focused on giving the most expedient answer I could. 

 

“I’m tracking a speedster. He took something of mine that I need back, and I know that ARGUS’ satellites have the data I need to track speedster energy signatures.” Aunt Lyla paused and seemed to consider what I was asking of her.

 

“We do, but if there’s a speedster in Starling City, then you need to let ARGUS handle it. We’re trained to handle paranormal threats in a way a vigilante just can’t. Give me all the intel you have on this speedster, and I’ll make sure he’s taken care of and your property is returned to you.” I heaved a deep sigh. I could handle Momentum better than ARGUS could, I knew that. It was me he was after, meaning I had some leverage. I just needed to find him. 

 

“Lyla, you know that I don’t want to put civilians in harm’s way any more than you do. But Anna is the only one who can deal with this particular speedster, trust me.” At least I had Dig on my side.

 

“And why’s that? Because she’s young and inexperienced? Is that why I should allow her to go up against a powerful metahuman? ARGUS will ascertain the threat and bring him in, and that’s final.” 

 

“It’s more complicated than that, Lyla. I’m convinced that Anna is the only one who can bring this speedster in.” And now I had my dad going up to bat for me as well. He was paying so much attention, in fact, that his salsa-drenched eggs were hardly touched.

 

“Why is this the first time I hear you’re training a new recruit, Johnny? And where did this speedster come from in the first place? Things aren’t adding up here.”

 

“Well the short explanation is,” but before I could finish my sure to be well-crafted lie, Dad jumped in.

 

“She’s from the future, and so’s the speedster. Trust me, I don’t get it either.” Well, there went my cover once again. Knowing it was better to just go with it than cry over spilt milk, I jumped back in.

 

“I followed the speedster through time in order to stop him and to rescue my brother.” The more times I told this story, the bigger a reminder it was that I still hadn’t saved Tommy. “You’re the only one who can help me.”

 

Aunt Lyla sat there, stunned. I didn’t know if she knew time travel was real or not. I was never really clear on what parts of the world ARGUS was aware of and what they were in the dark on at any point in time. But Aunt Lyla steeled herself, like she always did when presented with an improbable mission.

 

“If there’s a metahuman running around who is in the wrong time period, then we have to send him back. And I still believe that ARGUS is the best way to do that. We have a lot more resources-”

 

“But not the right ones.” I cut in. “I’ve fought this speedster before. He’s my problem, not yours. And telling all of ARGUS about time travel will only change the future in inalterable ways. I need this to be as covert as possible.” I stared unrelentingly at Aunt Lyla, and she stared back. I wanted her to know that I meant business and wasn’t backing down on this point. After what felt like a full minute, she conceded.

 

“Fine. I’ll go to ARGUS and search for the speedster with whatever parameters you need. But if I see this getting out of hand or this speedster goes public, I will be involving ARGUS and briefing them on all of this. Got it?”

 

“I can’t come with you?”

 

“I can’t bring a teenager with no clearance into one of the most secure buildings in the world, no.” 

 

“Then how will you know how to program the search?”

 

“You can program it for me here, and I’ll just bring it in remotely. It’s that or nothing.”

 

“Alright,” I acquiesced. It wasn’t the ideal solution, but it was something.  _ I’m going to find you, Tommy _ .

 

“Thank you for...breakfast? But I have to get going. Mysterious drug lords aren’t going to find themselves.” Apparently my dad thought his job with me was done. He got up, and tapped me on the shoulder, so I followed him toward the door. 

 

Before making his exit, he said to me in a low tone, “Try to get some rest, alright? I know what you’re thinking, but you’re no use to your brother like this.” I knew he was right, so I nodded.  _ We’re going to find you, Tommy _ . 


	8. Chapter 8

After I had finished coding the program on my tablet, and downloaded it onto the USB that Aunt Lyla had given me, I was ready to crash. I figured there was nothing else I could do while Aunt Lyla uploaded the program onto the ARGUS servers, so I settled on the floor and started to kick off my boots. Dig came in from checking on John, and shook his head at me. 

 

“You’re going to sleep like that?”I glanced down at my suit. I didn’t really care what I slept in or where, as long as I was relatively safe when I did so. Security was equal to comfort for me, and there was no place more secure than wherever Dig was.

 

“I don’t mind.” Dig gave me an incredulous look. “Really.” 

 

“Here’s how it’s going to go. You’re going to take a shower, and I’m going to give you some of Lyla’s old clothes. Then you’re going to sleep on the couch, like a normal human. We can’t be vigilantes all the time.” Before I could even begin my argument, Dig added, “I don’t think your brother would mind how you slept.” Point taken. Dig gestured for me to follow him as he went into the master bedroom. I stopped at the room’s edge and watched as he pulled out some clothes from a bureau. He handed me an oversized shirt and some sweatpants, which I took graciously. He then pointed me toward the bathroom. 

 

I didn’t want to take too long in the shower, but as soon as the warm water hit me, I was a goner. It couldn’t melt all my stress away, but it definitely helped. It reminded me of one of the first missions I had shadowed with my dad. We tracked a gang leader to one of the city’s water treatment plants. In an attempt to make a clean getaway, he opened up a pipe, one that I just happened to be standing beneath. Before I had realized it, gallons of sewage was unleashed all over me. Dad ended up catching the criminal, while I did my best to avoid throwing up. I had to take an hour-long shower that night and wash my suit with bleach for the next week. Tommy called me “Smelly-lante” for a month. John and Frankie thought it was hilarious, but eventually got over it. Tommy still used the nickname whenever I took a shower after a mission.

 

I smiled recalling the memory. After a while, I got out of the shower and put on Aunt Lyla’s clothes. I ambled over the couch, and lay down, hoping to quickly fall into a dreamless sleep.

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

My hopes were dashed almost immediately. I kept reliving Tommy’s kidnapping over and over again. The look in his eyes as he figured out where he was. Him calling my name as he struggled against Momentum’s hold. The scream as he was being pulled through the portal. But this time, the portal closed before I could jump through. I sensed movement behind me and turned around. 

 

“Why didn’t you save me, Sissy?” It was Tommy, bruised and bleeding. “You weren’t there when I needed you. You promised you’d keep me safe, you promised!” 

 

I felt my heart being pulled out of my chest. I tried to reach out to this Tommy, but he disappeared as soon as I got my hand close. 

 

“I’m sorry, Tommy! I’m going to find you, I promise!” My surroundings began to fade, and I heard another disembodied voice.

 

“Anna….Anna, wake up!”

 

I jumped awake to find Dig shaking me. Had I been screaming in my sleep? Before I could get too concerned, Dig spoke.

 

“Lyla found your speedster.” 


	9. Chapter 9

I quickly hopped up and saw that Aunt Lyla was in the kitchen working on something on her laptop. I went over to where she was sitting and leaned over her shoulder. It was a map of Starling City, with purple lines criss-crossing it. Speedster energy signatures! 

 

“We were able to trace the speedster from the point of origin you gave us. It doesn’t seem like he was following any discernable pattern. But the trail runs cold at this point here. Does any of this mean anything to you?” She pointed at a spot on the map, and I examined the data more closely. The speedster would go to a specific point, stop running for an hour, and then run to another point and follow the same pattern. The locations the speedster chose seemed random: an unused office building near the edge of the Glades, a half-empty skyscraper downtown, and, his resting point, an unused residential lot. But I saw those locations for what they really were: my dad’s future campaign office, the headquarters of Smoak Technologies, and finally the lot where my house would be built. 

 

“I understand exactly what he’s doing. He’s looking for me.” He was hopscotching across the landmarks of my life, thinking I may have retreated to one of them. It would’ve been an immature play on my part to just retreat to the space the new bunker was going to be built, but for some reason Momentum thought that was going to be my move. Apparently this was going to go down at my house. I gathered up my gear and made for the door. 

 

“You’re not going after him alone.” I wasn’t interested in hashing out this old argument with Aunt Lyla. I needed that speedster, and I needed him now. 

 

“If we wait to gather up an ARGUS strike team, he’ll have already moved on to his next location, and that could be on the other side of the country. I’m not going to lose this chance at him.”

 

“I agree. But you’re still not going after him alone. Johnny and I will come along as tactical support.” Tactical support? 

 

“Have either of you ever fought a speedster before?”

 

“No, but I was tactical support in a fight against a speedster once. I guess that gives me the correct credentials?” Dig had helped my dad fight a speedster? Had my dad gone up against Eobard Thawne? It didn’t make sense to me, but I didn’t think Digg would lie to me.

 

“Fine, you can come. Just don’t get in my way.”

 

\------------------------------------------------

 

I didn’t need Aunt Lyla’s laptop to give me directions on where to go. I was able to point out the way to my house even while changing into my gear. We pulled up about a block away. Dig opened up the glove compartment and gave me a rather bulky comms unit. I put it in my ear, where it sat uncomfortably. 

 

“No extraction unless I specifically call for it, alright? Momentum does not react well to strangers.” I could recall learning that lesson all too harshly myself. 

 

“Fine. But don’t play hero, Anna. Call us as soon as you need us.” I picked up my bow and exited through the back door of the van. As soon as I was out of sight, I turned the comms unit off and dropped it on the street. I couldn’t afford Dig and Aunt Lyla getting hurt at this point in their lives.

 

There hadn’t really been a point in parking this far away, as it was mostly open land, in the daylight. Not my preferred layout, but it was all we had. We were in a future suburbia-the roads had already been roughly lined up, but were still gravel. The lots were each marked with a sign and a number, and a few trees dotted the landscape. I ducked from one to the next as I headed toward the lot that was mine, counting as I went.  _ This is the Fredericks’ yard, Dig’s yard, the Bakers’ _ and so on until I got to my yard. The oak tree out front had been there for years. The chains tied around it were new.. I stealthily made my way around the tree and found-

 

“Tommy!” He was chained to the tree and completely unconscious. There was a padlock near his right elbow. Quickly checking his vitals, I discovered he was still breathing steadily and had a steady pulse, with no visible injuries. I pulled out my lock picking tool and began the process of picking the lock. Just as I was about to unlock the chains, a force sent me flying backwards and landing on my butt. I had been on the receiving end of this attack too many times to mistake it.

 

“Momentum,” I grunted with as much venom in my voice as I could muster. The purple-suited speedster stood between my brother and me.

 

“Ms. Queen, so nice of you to join us.”

 

“Give me back my brother or I  _ will  _ kill you.”

 

“Now, now, we don’t have to resort to violence, do we?” I would show him exactly what I was willing to resort to. I nocked an arrow and shot it straight at him. He sped out of the way, and the arrow embedded itself in the oak tree. I refocused my rage and spun to face him, aiming for his chest with a roundhouse kick this time. He dodged again, and I hit nothing but air. Too angry to see straight, I reoriented myself and tried for another punch. Too slow again. Was it just me, or had Momentum actually become a better fighter?

 

“As you can see, Miss Queen, I don’t have time for your antics today. I’m not interested in fighting you for the boy, either.”

 

“Then what are you interested in, speed freak?”

 

“Let’s watch our mouths, young one. Or else I won’t tell you about the trade.” A trade? What could an all-powerful speedster possibly want from me? I unconsciously gripped the bracelet on my wrist.  _ Anything but that _ . 

 

“What do you want?”

 

“Ah, so you are willing to negotiate.” Dang. I had given up my bargaining power too quickly. But it was probably obvious I’d do just about anything to get Tommy back. “Here’s the trade I’m willing to offer: I’ll give you your brother back if you bring to me Felicity Smoak’s biostimulant.” 

 

Mom’s biostimulant? What? I was at a loss for words. What could this speedster possibly want with my mom’s defunct biochip? Surely he had read the newspaper headlines? There was no possible use for the hardware.

 

“What do you want with that?”

 

“That’s none of your business, Queenie. You have one week to get me the biochip. In the meantime, I promise to keep your brother… alive.” I glanced at Tommy. He hadn’t been harmed so far, if that was a sign of good faith. Momentum was always did like his games and trickery, so I somehow believed he’d keep Tommy alive. It was the only way he’d get his precious biochip after all.

 

“Let’s say I actually go through with this trade. How will I find you?”

 

“Don’t worry about that, sweetie. I’ll find you.” I took a deep breath and said the words I might live to regret, but I didn’t have a choice.

 

“Fine, we have a deal.”

 

“Oh, and if you’re dumb enough to decide you’d rather come after me than get me what I want, you can kiss your brother good-bye.” And in a flash, he and Tommy were gone.

 

I fell to my knees. I couldn’t believe what I had just agreed to. Mom hadn’t been paralyzed yet. Curtis hadn’t invented the biostimulant yet. I had no way of delivering on that promise in a week. I tried to stop myself from crying. I would do anything to get my brother back, but what I had just agreed to wasn’t even possible.


	10. Chapter 10

I walked back to the van with my head hung in shame. I was going over the possibilities in my head, and none of them added up to anything good. My mission had just gotten ten times more complicated. I climbed into the back of the van. 

 

“Anna, where were you?” Dig questioned me sharply. “Why did you turn your comms off? We were a minute away from going in there and extracting you.” I didn’t expect Dig to be so upset; after all, he barely knew me. 

 

“The mission failed,” I said resignedly, taking off my hood and my mask. Dig started the car and drove us back toward the city center.

 

“Why, what happened?” Aunt Lyla seemed almost as concerned as Dig. 

 

“I lost to the speedster. There’s no getting my brother back.” Dig and Aunt Lyla stared at me, Dig in sympathy and Aunt Lyla with no pity in her gaze. 

 

“That’s it. I’m bringing ARGUS in.”

 

“No!” I couldn’t have ARGUS agents get hurt in the speedster’s wake; that would have unseen ramifications on the timeline. And if Momentum killed one of them, I would have failed as a Traveller. “The speedster isn’t a threat to anyone in this time; he only wants me. If he wanted trouble, wouldn’t he have started it already?”

 

“I’m not going to wait around for this speedster to hurt someone before intervening. Director Waller would fire me if she even knew I had let things progress this far.” I held my head in my hands. What could I say to convince her to stay out of this?

 

“Does ARGUS have anti-speedster weapons? Do they have any experience with speedsters at all? Have they taken down even one meta?” I knew the answer was no; ARGUS tended to let the Flash capture the metas and then take care of it from there. Even when Amanda Waller was still alive and in charge, she had never been one for dealing with metas, only her multi-talented, but purely human, Suicide Squad. 

 

“Just because we’ve never done it before doesn’t mean we can’t. We’ll have more luck than one teenage girl.”

 

“This speedster is fickle. He only likes dealing with me.” How could I explain it to them without getting too detailed? 

 

“What do you mean, he only deals with you?”

 

“The only person that’s gone up against this speedster that’s walked away is me.” Dig stared at me in the rearview mirror, a questioning look on his face. “He’s a temperamental whack job that’s very picky about who he gets into fights with. I once brought in back-up, and he killed them and said it was my fault, for ruining the ‘unique character of our rivalry.’” 

 

“And you think he’d be... unappreciative of ARGUS agents?” Dig questioned.

 

“That’s our risk to take,” Aunt Lyla argued.

 

“No, it’s not.” I shook my head. Why didn’t they get it? They were treating this as a take-down, when it was really a hostage negotiation. “It’s my brother’s risk. If this speedster sees anyone but me approaching, he’ll kill my brother, I have no doubt.”

 

“ARGUS can protect your brother.” We had pulled up to Dig’s building. “I’m briefing Director Waller and taking a team to take down your speedster, and that’s final.” She opened her door and walked out of the van, like it was that easy. 

 

I had no idea what to do next. Dig looked at me again in the rearview mirror and said, “This is probably for the best. She just doesn’t want to see you hurt.” I know Dig was just trying to pacify me; this woman had no relation to me or cause for concern if I was hurt. I had been lucky she had been willing to help this much, but now I understood she had never expected me to succeed. She probably just wanted intel on Momentum and realized this was the best way to get it. “Let me take you back to the bunker.” Dig pulled the van back out into traffic.

 

I didn’t need to go to the bunker. I had no need to see my mom or dad. What I really needed was a biostimulant. I needed Curtis. I whipped out my tablet again and did a quick search for him. My best guess was right; he was an employee at Palmer Tech. 

 

“Actually, could you take me to Felicity? There’s something I want to go over with her in my speedster-tracing program. I think it was lagging.” I knew Dig wasn’t one to argue with tech-speak.

 

“Felicity will be at the bunker soon, you can wait for her there.”

 

“But I think this will be able to help Lyla track the speedster better. Will you just drop me off at her workplace, please?”

 

“Alright.” Dig switched lanes and made a quick left turn, taking us on our way to Palmer Tech. I just hoped Curtis was as terrific in this time period as he was in mine.


	11. Chapter 11

 

As Dig made the drive over to PalmerTech, I changed back into Aunt Lyla’s old clothes and quickly wrote a fun little program on my tablet. After reassuring Dig I could get a ride home with Mom, I strode confidently through the front doors of the large glass skyscraper. Walking up to the front desk, I saw two security guards staring intently at their computers. As soon as my tablet was calibrated with the network, I hit a button to activate the program before folding it up and shoving it in my boot. I cleared my throat to get the nearest guard’s attention.

 

“What can I do for you, young lady?” I was amazed that in this time period the guard didn’t bat an eye at a girl walking into a place of business in what were basically glorified pajamas. 

 

“I have an appointment with Curtis Holt.”

 

“Let me see some ID.” The guard was thoroughly bored by this conversation already. Good.

 

“I don’t have any, but Curtis said he programmed my photo into our appointment info? Anna Williams?” The guard gave me a skeptical look but turned toward his computer anyway. Just as planned, when he searched Curtis’ calendar, my fake appointment and picture came up. He quickly glanced between the photo and me before reaching into a drawer and presenting me with a visitor’s badge.

 

“Make sure you give this back before you leave.” I grabbed the badge and attached it the best I could to my t-shirt.

 

“Sure thing.” With that, I headed past security and toward the elevator bank. As I did, I imagined what this place was like only a few months ago, when it was Queen Consolidated. The company my grandparents had built from the ground up. I wish I had been here to see it. As much as I admired Dr. Palmer, it would be another thing entirely to have seen my family run it. What would it be like to wander these halls knowing you owned the place? Had my father hoped to leave the company as a legacy for his children someday? How did it feel when he lost it all? 

 

After a quick elevator ride up to Applied Sciences, I was able to find Curtis’ office. I knocked on the door, confident in my cover story. I certainly looked the part. A frazzled Curtis Holt opened the door and gave me a questioning look.

 

“Can I...help you?” He probably hadn’t expected a teenage girl at his door, but that would have to wait.

 

“Hi, Mr. Holt,” I stuck my hand out confidently. “I’m Anna Williams. Your boss said you’re the one I should talk to?” Curtis shook my hand hesitantly.

 

“My boss said I’m the one to talk to about what?” I continued to awkwardly stand in his doorway.

 

“I’m working on a piece for my high school’s paper about advances in technology and engineering. You know, get kids hyped about going into STEM careers? He thought you could show me around your lab a bit, and I could ask you my questions.” 

 

“Look, Anna, was it? I’m right in the middle of something and don’t have a lot of time…”

 

“Oh, that’s fine. I guess I’ll just go back and check if your boss has someone else available...” I took a few steps backward. I assumed this Curtis was just as intimidated by authority as mine.

 

“No, no, I’ll make time.” Bullseye.

 

“Perfect!” I walked past Curtis into his lab. It was much smaller than the one I had played in growing up, but it was still just as cluttered; there were odds and ends everywhere, and not even I could identify all the pieces. Curtis came in behind me and closed the door. 

 

“A lot of this stuff is proprietary, and I can’t have the press knowing about it, high school or not.”

 

“That’s rad.” Curtis gave me a funny look, and I realized my mistake. “I mean, that’s cool. I’ll just ask you a couple questions and go.”

 

“Great.” Curtis sat at the chair by his desk and spun around to face me, still looking irritated. That’s when I saw the sphere behind him: a T-sphere! Or, at least, a prototype that would eventually become a T-sphere. If he had prototypes for that, he surely had some working knowledge of the biostimulant, if not another prototype. 

 

“What I’m really fascinated in is the intersection of multiple STEM fields-for instance, biotechnology. What can you tell me about your own advances in that area?”

 

“Biotech? Um, I don’t really work in that. I’m more about creating better hardware that can keep pace with the ever-changing nature of software. For example, I’m working on extending battery life, which could have wide-ranging uses, including, I suppose, in a biotechnical capacity.” Either he was keeping the biostimulant a secret in fear of competition, or he really had no ideas about it whatsoever. I had to keep digging.

 

“Do you ever work with implantable technology?”

 

“No, that’s certainly beyond me. I understand it in theory, but working with it is another matter entirely.” I’d just have to go with this.

 

“Okay, could you theoretically, then, explain to me how an implantable device could someday cure paralysis?” I seemed to have taken Curtis way off guard.

 

“Whoa, that’s way off in the future. Like, decades. Trust me, my husband’s a physical therapist. If we had tech like that, his job would be a whole lot easier. But if you want to know how it would work? For something like that, I suppose you’d need a base that supports cellular regeneration.” Curtis now seemed to be talking less to me and more to himself. “The tech would have to constantly be reminding cells that they need to multiply to keep the body healthy. And it could never die. You’d need a battery that would last for the entire lifetime of the user. Plus someone who mastered biochemistry and biotechnology to code the thing. Each device would have to be unique to the user’s physiology, including the nature of their injury. Not something that could be mass produced in any capacity.” Curtis then seemed to notice that I was there.

 

“Thanks, Mr. Holt, that should be enough for my article.”

 

“Shouldn’t you be taking notes on all of this?” Shoot. This is why I could never be a reporter.

 

“Uh, I have a photographic memory. Perfect recall.” I shook Curtis’ hand again and left before he started asking too many questions. 

 

\------------------------------------

 

Once I was back out in the lobby, I gave my visitor’s badge back to the guard and found a bench to sit on just outside the secured area but still inside the building. Curtis had given me a lot to process. How could he be so far ahead on the T-spheres and yet have nothing, not even a basic understanding, for the biostimulant? He claimed it was decades away from development! Yet, I knew that he had developed the technology on his own within a few months of my mom’s accident and had it ready to go. That kind of technological progress wasn’t possible, even for a genius like Curtis. He was pretty clear he didn’t have the qualifications to make implantable tech, and it’s not like his current husband would be much help; he wasn’t a doctor. 

 

I wished I could talk to Curtis, my Curtis. Pick his brain on how he was able to solve my mom’s case. If he could invent it in the future, then why couldn’t he invent it here as well? And what made Momentum, who had carefully laid plans about taking me back to 2015, think that the biostimulant was available? And why get it now? And why did he want tech that was doomed to fail?!? None of it made any sense. 

 

I dropped my head in my hands. While talking to my Curtis would be great, what I wanted even more was to talk to my mom. She’d be able to help me reason everything out, put all the pieces in their proper place. If nothing else, she could give me her support and a hug. I rubbed my eyes and looked back up at all the people exiting the building at the end of the work day. 

 

I saw my mom.

 

I had to stop myself from getting up and running toward her. Instead, I did my best to discreetly flag her down. She stopped, stared at me with her usual head tilt of confusion, and then walked over.

 

“Anna, what are you doing here?” Right. I needed a reason that matched what I had told Dig. May as well keep it simple.

 

“I wanted you to take a look at this program I had written, but I didn’t realize I’d need security clearance in order to get up to see you.”

 

“I’m sorry, you should’ve just had the front desk call me. But never mind that, I can look at the program now. Give it here.” She held out her hand, and I pulled out my tablet and pulled up the program. She looked over it quickly, with her eyes darting from one corner of the screen to the other. “Were you able to find that speedster?”

 

“Yeah, I did, but I wasn’t able to get my brother. And now ARGUS has taken over the mission.”

 

“That’s good, right? They won’t stop until they get him.” Mom was clearly distracted by reading the program.

 

“I just don’t want to keep interfering with the timeline.”

 

“Sometimes we have to do the unthinkable for people we love.” She didn’t even know the half of it.

 

“Yeah, maybe.” 

 

“This looks great! I don’t think I could’ve designed it any better myself.” My heart swelled with pride from the praise. It wasn’t a hug, but it would have to do for now.

 

“I was about to head to the bunker, if you want to join me.” I nodded my assent. “First, we have to get food. What do you feel like eating?” What food place would still be in Star City in 2015? Only one answer came to mind.

 

“Definitely Big Belly Burger.”


	12. Chapter 12

I listened to my mom rattle off a litany of orders at Big Belly: hers, my dad’s, Dig’s, and two I didn’t recognize. When she was done, she turned to me and asked me what I wanted. I recited my typical order to the cashier: a number 4 with large fries and a chocolate shake. Without further comment, my mom paid for the order and we went to sit at a table to wait for it. 

 

“So...you like chocolate shakes?” I could see her attempt to try and bond with me, but I wasn’t sure where this could possibly be going.

 

“Yeah, they’re kind of my favorite,” I admitted.

 

“Good to know there’s still chocolate in the future,” Mom mused. If this was her way of digging for future intel, there could surely be a better way. After a pause, she blurted out, “N*SYNC or Backstreet Boys?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Do you prefer N*SYNC or the Backstreet Boys? I mean, I love me some Justin Timberlake but when you compare the strengths of all the band members together the only conclusion is that-”

 

“I’m not sure I really have a preference,” I said, effectively cutting off what I saw was going to be a long babble. I didn’t really have a preference on the boy bands my mom had grown up with, and I didn’t really find any of this relevant.

 

“Alright, favorite movie?” 

 

“I can’t really tell you about movies that haven’t been made yet.”

 

“You don’t have a favorite classic?” She really was going to keep pushing this, so I guess I could give her something.

 

“Back to the Future.” No one could deny my ironic sense of humor.

 

“Ooh, good movies. Which one, though?”   
  


“The first one. The second one is almost a reshoot of the first and the third one has no originality whatsoever.” 

 

“Agreed. But I must say the internally consistent rules of time travel the films employed really set them aside from any other time travel series.” This wasn’t the first time I had heard this. That would have been a sick day when I was in second grade. Good to know some things never change.

 

“You’ve given a lot of thought to this, haven’t you? Time travel?”

 

“I like to be prepared. Especially now that I know time travel is real, I want to be responsible if I’m ever called upon to actually, ya know, do it.” I had to laugh. I knew of one time travel mission my mom had gone on, and she had created devastating ripples throughout time leading to an alien invasion.  _ Not like you’re doing any better _ , I reminded myself as I rubbed my bracelet self-consciously.  _ You may end up erasing yourself and Tommy just like Marty McFly before the mission is over. _

 

“I’m glad you put thought into this. Believe me, being a Traveller isn’t easy.”

 

“Is that what you call yourself? Travellers?” She seemed excited by the notion, like there was some kind of club that you could join. I’d hardly say that Travellers had a secret handshake.

 

“Sometimes. It depends on who’s doing the Travelling and how.”

 

“You mean there’s more than one way to travel through time?” And I had clearly already given away too much.

 

“I really shouldn’t say anymore. I don’t want to give away too much future knowledge.”   
  
“Oh.” Mom broke eye contact, clearly disappointed. After a few more moments of awkward silence, our number was called. I got up and helped Mom pick up all the to-go bags and headed for the car. So much for mother-daughter bonding. 

 

\------------------------------------------------------

 

Once we got to the Bunker, I was heartened to see something completely normal: Dad and Dig sparring. I stayed back, however, as Mom gathered everyone for the food she had just unceremoniously dumped on the med table. Someone put down their bow and arrow from what was obviously a training shooting range and came over. It took me a second, but I recognized who he was.

 

“You must be the future girl. I’m Roy,” he said as he waved his hand in greeting. 

 

“Yep, that’s me,” was the best I could manage in return. Then I heard a voice from behind me.

 

“So you’re the mysterious Anna.” I didn’t recognize the female voice at all. “It’s nice to meet you, unless we’ve met already, in the future.” I turned around and immediately wished I hadn’t. 

 

“I’m Laurel Lance,” she said while offering me her hand to shake. Like I didn’t know one of my own namesakes. The real and authentic Laurel Lance, alive and well. I shook her hand as quickly as I could, avoiding eye contact.

 

“Yeah, I got it.” I grabbed my food and went to stand as far from Laurel as I could. I couldn’t imagine looking at her any longer. Of course I knew all about her. I also knew her fate. It was harder than it was with Dad or Mom or even Roy. Nothing good could come of me interacting with Earth-1 Laurel Lance. I did my best to eat in silence while Mom, Dad and Dig briefed the team on their take-down of that drug dealer tonight. As much as I tried to focus on just eating my burger, I couldn’t help stealing glances out of the corner of my eye at Laurel. How she smiled, or laughed, or tossed her hair. What her suit looked like up close, or the ombre of her hair. How passionately she talked about her work at the DA’s office. How easy it would be for me to save her.  _ No,  _ I chastised myself,  _ that’s not what you’re here for. _

 

As the team finished eating what was truly a massive amount of food, Mom gave a yelp and pulled out her phone, causing the entire team to look at her. 

 

“Ugh, it’s a text from Ray. I’m sorry, but he needs me back at work.” My dad’s face displayed a combination of rage and disappointment. I guess he wasn’t too happy about having no one to run comms for tonight’s mission. “You guys can handle this one without me, right?” 

 

Dad made a noncommittal noise which everyone seemed to take as a “yes”. They all returned to eating as if Dad grunting was a normal, and somehow not a barbaric, occurrence. I started packing up my trash, when Mom turned to me.

 

“Actually, Anna, you can run comms tonight!” Okay, that was not a good idea. Me eating with the team was one thing, but me possibly changing the outcome of a mission that I knew nothing about was another.

 

“That’s probably not a good idea.” For some reason, Dig seemed to agree with me. “Anna isn’t exactly comm-friendly.” Ah, yes, my recent episode abandoning the comms in favor of striking out on my own. 

 

“Surely she can handle pressing a few buttons and unlocking a few doors?” my dad asked. Why did he have to be defending my abilities at a time like this? “Felicity, you go ahead. Anna has us more than covered.” He said this as if it were an insult, and my mom seemed to take it that way. She ducked her head and walked out. This was her idea, and she was suddenly acting like it was a bad one? What was the drama about Mom having to go back to PalmerTech? The team turned back to Dad, who just shrugged. “Everyone suit up. I’ll brief Anna on the details.”

 

The details of the plan weren’t too difficult to follow. They’d show up at the dealer’s lair, get the place surrounded, get in, beat everyone up, and leave the guy for the SCPD to find. I wasn’t too concerned with the whole thing, and figured this would at least leave me some time on my own to do research. 

 

As soon as the team was gone, I booted up my tablet and started researching biostimulants. I wish I knew more about my mom’s, so I could go about attempting to recreate it. As it was, I knew some of the basics, and some of the information Curtis had given me, but nothing too specific. You would of course need the hardware, some kind of micro-tech. Curtis already had the battery. Then you’d need the software and the cellular regeneration component.  _ Biostimulant software-where have I heard that before?  _ And then I remembered.

 

\----------------------------------

 

It was a typical day. I was doing homework in Mom’s room after school and keeping an eye on Tommy while he played on my tablet. Mom was dozing on and off while some cheesy sci-fi movie played on the TV. It must’ve been later in her stay, because the constant beeping of the various monitors attached to Mom and all the other sounds of people hurrying about in the hospital didn’t distract me from my work. I made sure Tommy always wore headphones so the noises didn’t upset him. My concentration was startled, however, when Dad came into the room. He pulled up a chair on the other side of Mom’s bed and just sat and stared at her. He did this a lot, actually. I wished I had the luxury of being able to sit and contemplate Mom’s sickness, but I just didn’t. Between school and Tommy and keeping up with our ties to Team Flash and the Legends, I didn’t have time to worry about Mom. 

  
Mom slowly came to and stared at Dad. She gave him her special smile, and he his. I wondered if that’s how I would look some day. I hoped so; I’d love to be in love as my parents were. 

 

“Did the tests come back yet?” my mom asked my dad, oblivious to Tommy and I on her other side. 

 

“Yeah,” my dad was barely able to eke out in a whisper. That wasn’t good, I knew from experience.

 

“Just say it, Oliver.”

 

“But the kids…” That’s when Mom turned and saw me and Tommy. 

 

“Honey, would you mind taking Tommy out into the hall for a moment?” I wanted to stay. If Mom’s test results weren’t good, I was going to find out anyway, right? I knew all the terminology, I knew what was good and what was bad, and I was fourteen. I deserved to hear this! But there was no use arguing with my parents, so I tapped Tommy’s shoulder, and grabbed his hand, taking him out into the hallway.

 

I was able to sit Tommy in a chair across the hall, and I crept as close as I could to the open door of Mom’s room. I wasn’t able to hear everything, but I caught hushed words like “t-cells,” “aggressive,” and “doing what we can.” I got the message clearly. I knew what happened next. Both my parents would be strong, for each other’s sake. Neither would break down, and each would make the commitment to keep fighting. It had happened before. But what I heard next surprised me.

 

“What are you saying, Oliver? That it’s poisoning me?”

 

“There’s something in it that’s destroying you from the inside out, Felicity! And I can’t continue to watch it happen!”

 

“Are you saying he’s trying to kill me?”

 

“No, of course not, but maybe the design isn’t as perfect as we thought, maybe the hardware-”

 

“There’s nothing wrong with Curtis’ hardware! It’s an old design of Ray’s!”

 

“And everything Ray makes is perfect?” A deep sigh from my dad. “I don’t want to fight.”

 

“Me neither.” A pause. “It could be something in the software. I took a look at the code but I’m not familiar enough with biochemical processes to say for certain it was right.”

 

“We’ll figure this out together. But if we have to remove it-”

 

“Then we will. I’ll just go back to being Hot Wheels.” My mom sounded amused, but I was terrified. The biostimulant was causing this? But without it, she couldn’t walk. I turned and walked over to Tommy, still playing mindlessly. I sat in the chair next to him and gave him a side hug. He leaned into my shoulder and I started playing with his hair. How could this be possible?

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Anna? Do you copy?” I shook off my shell-shock from the memory. My dad needed me.

 

“Copy.”

 

“There’s a door with a numerical key. Can you open it remotely?” It took just a few seconds for my skeleton key to hack into the panel and open it. I heard Dad open the door over the comms. “That was rather fast.” 

 

“I have future tech.” I didn’t have time to internalize the compliment. It all felt meaningless in the wake of that memory, one of my worst.

 

“Good point.” I let the various punches and kicks on the comms become background noise. If anyone was hurt, I’d notice in the pattern of grunts and groans. I thought back to what I’d remembered about the hospital and my parents’ argument. The hardware was PalmerTech R&D, but where had the software come from? That was where they had thought the problem was. And then there was the cellular regeneration component that my parents hadn’t even mentioned. That would be a biochemical element. 

 

“Anna?” My dad needed me again. 

 

“Copy.” 

 

“We got the guy. Call Lance.” Oh. Right. I guess this was apparently something that Mom did back in the day. I searched her computer for Lance’s number and Mom’s number, and made the call with my tablet masquerading as Mom’s phone.

 

“Ms. Smoak?” Man, Lance sounded exactly the same.

 

“Hello, Captain.”

 

“Who’s this? Where’s Ms. Smoak?” 

 

“I’m just a friend of Ms. Smoak’s. I actually have a message from our mutual friend.”

 

“Is that so? And what makes me believe this isn’t some kind of prank?”

 

“I’m using Felicity’s phone? Plus, I know all the details of your usual operation with her, so…”

 

“Fine. What do you got for me?” I gave him the rough details of the mission and the location of the warehouse where they could find the dealer. He thanked me curtly and hung up. I turned my comm back on.

 

“Arrow, I got the Captain the location.”

 

“Good, we’re heading home.”

 

Another successful mission for Starling City’s green-hooded vigilante. If only Star City’s future blue-hooded vigilante could have as much luck on her mission.


	13. Chapter 13

The team came back in a good mood, smiling and clapping each other on the back. One by one, they changed out of their gear and left for home, until it was just Dad, Dig and me. 

 

“You still need a place to crash for the night, Anna? Lyla’s still out with her team looking for your speedster, but you’re welcome to sleep on the couch again.” Dig was polite to offer, but I really didn’t want to inconvenience him. 

 

“No, I don’t want to be a bother. Besides, there’s still some research I’d like to do here, so I’ll just crash here.” Our bunker, the one in the future, had a couple of cots in it for a night like this. I doubted this place did, but I didn’t mind sleeping wherever. 

 

“Alright, well, good night.” Dig left, leaving just me and Dad, who had already changed out of his gear.

 

“You heading out?” I asked my dad, hoping he would leave me to my continued research.

 

“I, um, I actually live here.”

 

“Here?” I looked around, trying to see any sign the place was inhabited at all. I knew my dad had spent years living in caves and abandoned airplanes, but to live in a nightclub’s basement when he had other options seemed like self-inflicted torture. I knew he used to be into that, and I guess the phase continued. “Where do you sleep?”

 

“There’s a mattress in the corner. But you’re welcome to have it tonight. I’ll sleep on the practice mats.” I glanced over at the few surely sweat-stained mats. 

 

“Look, I know you’re used to spartan living after your time on the island, but I’m the one putting you out. I’ll take the mats, you just sleep on your mattress. Besides, I’ll be up late, researching.”

 

“And what, exactly, are you researching?”

 

“Facts about this year that made the speedster want to come here in the first place.” Specifically, the biotechnical advancements they had in 2015.

 

“Dig told me a little bit about your encounter with the speedster, but did he say what he wanted? What was the reason he was looking for you?” And now it was time to lie.

 

“He didn’t say.” Dad gave me a confused look. “The guy’s a psychopath, alright? Capturing my brother and then looking for me to flaunt it in my face is par for the course. I guess I’ll just hope that ARGUS has better luck getting my brother back.”

 

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but ARGUS can’t always be, well, they can’t always be trusted. Sometimes they act in their own best interest when it comes to dealing with criminals.”

 

“You mean Waller might put the speedster on the Suicide Squad? Tell me something I don’t know.” Dad seemed shocked that I knew about the top-secret Squad, but then seemed to resign himself to the fact.

 

“I’m just saying that putting a speedster from the future on the Squad might not be the best idea.”

 

“I already tried to convince Lyla that ARGUS shouldn’t be dealing with the speedster, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I’m not concerned what will happen if she captures him, I’m worried about what will happen if she doesn’t.”

 

“You think she’ll lose?”

 

“I’m confident she will. But she knows the risks, so what could I say to her?”

 

“It sounds like you had a lot you wanted to say to her. You don’t seem like someone who has a problem saying what’s on your mind.” He had that right. He had always taught me to speak up when it came to the safety of others. 

 

“My concern is that the speedster might hurt my brother if Lyla goes after him.”

 

“Why? He didn’t hurt him when you went after him. So that’s not part of whatever his crazy plan is.” No, his crazy plan was to go back in time to get medical tech from the future, a plan that made even less sense than not having a plan at all.

 

“I always worry about my brother. He’s my responsibility, and if he gets hurt, then it’s my fault.”

 

“Take it from someone who sometimes feels like he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders: this speedster taking your brother was something no one could’ve seen coming. It’s not your fault that he’s in this position, it’s just something that happened.” Ironic that the man who put me in charge of Tommy was now absolving me of my failures in taking care of him. But I didn’t want to push the point further.

 

“Maybe you’re right. Anyway, I really want to get this research done.”

 

“Right.” Dad gave me a forced smile. “Good night then.” Despite my earlier offer, Dad still curled up on the practice mats. I turned to my tablet and started looking at the different biomedical advances available in this time, but soon got distracted by my dad’s earlier words. Was it really not my fault? I’m not saying that I should’ve guessed the speedster would take my brother Travelling, but I should’ve been more careful with my identity. If I had, Momentum never could’ve put this plan into effect. He never could’ve gotten even close to Tommy.

 

Oh Tommy. I could only hope he had his inhaler and his EpiPen in his cargo shorts, like he promised us he always would. If Momentum laid a hand on him, I would kill him. That wasn’t an empty threat; it was a promise. 

 

I still remembered the day my parents told me I was going to have a baby brother or sister. I was so excited. John was practically my older brother, but having a real flesh-and-blood brother of my own seemed even better.  _ Wait until September,  _ my parents told me ,  _ and you’ll be a big sister _ . It seemed a long way away, but I marked the date in my Doctor Who calendar and waited patiently. I got so excited when I felt the baby kick inside of Mom, and I would sometimes suggest names that my parents promised me they would consider. I helped them pick out items for the nursery and generously donated some of my own toys to the effort. I even read childcare books my mom had gotten me from the library. I couldn’t wait until September.

 

What I hadn’t expected was waking up on a perfect summer day in mid-July and coming downstairs to see my Aunt Thea on the phone, crying. I tried hiding so I could eavesdrop on the conversation, but Aunt Thea saw me.

 

“She just came downstairs, Ollie. Yeah, I will. Okay, bye.” She quickly hung up her phone and put it down on the kitchen table. “Hey, pumpkin, good morning.” Her efforts to put on a happy face were failing. She had an untouched steaming coffee mug in front of her and dark circles under her eyes. 

 

“Where are my mom and dad?” I asked hesitantly. “We’re going to the zoo today.” 

 

“Sweetheart, why don’t you sit down?” I tentatively pulled out a kitchen chair and sat in it. I knew Dad hadn’t gone a mission last night, but had one of the team been hurt out in the field? As much as I didn’t like to imagine that possibility, I didn’t understand why else my parents would up and leave me? Aunt Thea took a deep breath, wiped the tears out of her eyes and turned to look me straight in the eye.

 

“Your mom and dad are at the hospital.” The hospital? So someone had been hurt!

 

“Your mom is giving birth to your baby brother or sister right now.” I was so confused. It was July. Mom wasn’t supposed to give birth until September, I knew it. “I know it’s a little bit early, but your little sibling decided to surprise your mom.” 

 

I sat there, taking it all in. It wasn’t good for babies to be born early, right? Babies weren’t ready to be born before nine months. All I wanted was to see my mom and make sure she was alright. And I wanted to see my sibling!

 

“We’re going to go see her, right? My mom?” Aunt Thea offered me a half-hearted smile. 

 

“Not quite yet. You see, your mom’s body was surprised, too, so she’s having a lot of trouble giving birth. Things are...complicated.” My heart rate increased to what felt like a million miles a minute.

 

“Is she okay? Is the baby okay?” 

 

“They’re okay right now, but we don’t want to be in the way of the doctors while they’re doing their job. Your mom needs to focus on the baby right now.” I didn’t understand how Aunt Thea could sound so calm. Didn’t she want to be there for the woman she considered a sister? Didn’t she want to be there for her brother?

 

“Well, can we go and just sit in the waiting room? I need to be there!”

 

“Your dad said he needs you here.” I didn’t understand it at the time, but I now know that my dad’s protective instinct had kicked into overdrive. When he was in pain, his instincts were to shut away everyone, plus protect me from the emotional hurt. Those instincts had lessened since being with my mom, but an event like this had shaken him to the core. 

 

Aunt Thea did end up taking me to the zoo that day, and she bought me all the sugary food there was to consume. She allowed me to pick what animals we saw next, but my heart wasn’t in it. She let us see the dolphin show, even though it cost extra to go, and bought me a stuffed dolphin. 

 

“Do you want to give your new pal a name?” Aunt Thea acted like I should be so thrilled to have the little guy. 

 

“I don’t feel like it.”

 

“Well, is it a boy dolphin or a girl dolphin?”

 

“It’s a stupid dolphin,” I mumbled, eyes downcast. I couldn’t bear looking up at the animals. Seeing the baby tiger cubs brought me near to tears, especially when the zookeeper went on and on about how healthy they were. It wasn’t until Aunt Thea got a phone call that I could start to breath again.

 

“Ollie? Yeah, we’re at the zoo. Really?” Then Thea’s face got a little paler and she frowned. “Okay, I understand. We’re on our way.” She hung up and crouched down to my level. “Your mom had the baby! You’re a big sister now! You ready to go see them?”

 

“Is my mom okay?”

 

“Yeah, she’s just a little tired after, you know, making a person.” Then why was Aunt Thea so clearly upset?

 

“And the baby?”

 

“The baby’s stable. I’ll let your dad explain more when we get there.” 

 

We spent a silent walk back to the car and said nothing more on our car ride to the nearby hospital. I held onto my dolphin tightly, hoping that everything was okay. When we walked into the hospital, Thea walked ahead of me and asked someone at the front desk for directions. I felt overwhelmed by the whole thing. There were people coming and going, and a lot of people didn’t look so good. A lot of alarms were going off, and people were talking. I wished I hadn’t left my stupid dolphin in the car. Aunt Thea came back for me and grabbed my hand, and almost dragged me over to the elevators. She pressed the button next to “NICU”. 

 

“What’s a nic-yoo?” I asked.

 

“It’s where they keep the babies who need a little extra help.”

 

“Does the baby need extra help?” Just then, the doors opened, and I saw my father pacing in the waiting room. I ran to him and, when he turned and saw me, he scooped me up into his arms and gave me a giant hug. He had tears in his eyes but a giant smile on his face.

 

“Hi, sissie!” Sissie? He’d never called me that before. He carried me over to a waiting room chair and sat down with me in his lap. “Did you have a nice time with Aunt Thea at the zoo?”

 

“No! I didn’t care about the dolphins! I want to meet the baby!”

 

“Okay, sweetheart, but first I need to tell you something very important. Your brother was born very, um,” my dad tried to collect himself and took a deep breath, “very small. And because he was born so early, he’s sick. You can see him, but you won’t be able to hold him for a while, okay? And he’s going to need a lot of time to get better and grow to normal baby size. So he has to stay in the hospital for a while.”

 

“Is Mom okay?”

 

“Your mom is fine, she’s just sleeping in the another room, and we’ll see her later, alright?”

 

“Okay.” I had to admit I was a bit scared to venture further into the hospital and see my brother, so I held my dad’s hand as he walked us to the room. Mostly, I was excited, though. But as we walked by more rooms, I saw that all the babies were being kept in clear plastic boxes with holes, like the animals at the zoo. Was my brother in a box, too?

 

Dad led me into the last room on the left in the hallway. We walked in and I saw the box that seemed too small for the room it was in, along with a lot of beeping monitors. And then I saw him. As soon as I walked into the room, it was like he woke up. He started moving around and making soft cooing noises. He was super pink and wrinkly, and connected to a bunch of tubes.

 

“Sweetheart, meet your brother, Thomas Robert Queen.” He was so small and fragile-looking. No wonder everyone was worried. “Now, as his big sister, it’s going to be your job to protect him. Do you think you can do that?”

 

“I promise,” I said with tears in my eyes. I walked as close as I dared to the box. “Hi, Tommy. I’m your big sister and I’m going to protect you no matter what.”

 

I slowly came back to the present. Tommy needed me now. I put my mind back on the research in front of me. I wasn’t getting anything from a cursory Internet search, so I started hacking my way into the R&D of a couple tech companies. Palmer Tech got me nothing, and neither did Kord Industries. I tried a few other big names, but no one had anything close to the software or the cellular regeneration formula. After a few hours of deep diving, I gave up. 

 

I looked around and eventually found the mattress that my dad had been using. It had a singular pillow and blanket, and at the foot of the “bed” was my gear, folded up nicely. I couldn’t find the light switch, so I just left the giant industrial lights on as I lay down and fell into a dreamless sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

I awoke to the sound of something being hit, hard. I jumped out of bed, as alert as I could be, and snuck my way through the back part of the bunker. I ducked behind a support beam and slowly turned the corner. I let out a deep breath. It was just Dad hitting a practice dummy particularly hard. Dad saw me as soon as I stepped from behind my hiding spot.

 

“Good morning.”

 

“Good morning. What did that practice dummy ever do to you?”

 

“Hmm? Oh, just going through the paces, I guess.” It  seemed like he had something more on his mind, but I let it go.

 

“You want a real opponent?” I needed to keep my skills up for the next time I’d be going up against Momentum. 

 

“Sure.” My dad walked over to the shelf of weapons and grabbed two bo staffs, tossing one to me. I caught it with one hand. “How are you with with one of those?”

 

“We’ll have to see.” Considering I had been trained in the art by two ex-League members, I was feeling pretty confident. Dad started off the fight clearly going easy on me. He was slow in his movements, his pacing was consistent, and he wasn’t even hitting particularly hard. It only took a few seconds for me to speed up one of my hits, get him off pace, and sweep his legs. 

 

“Don’t go easy on me,” I chastised him. Dad hopped back up and we got back into it. This time, he was much quicker and more accurate with his strikes, seeming to actually put some thought into it. Our pace increased, and I was able to throw in some kicks and turns to try and throw him off. It wasn’t working. Eventually, he got a swipe at my left arm. 

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” Before he could finish that statement, I took advantage of his exposed state to sweep his legs again and hold my staff up to his neck, a clear sign of victory. “Why didn’t you stop? You’re bleeding.”

 

I glanced down at my arm and saw I did have a slight cut. I wasn’t too concerned about it; I had gotten far worse training with him and others before.

 

“My opponent isn’t going to stop a battle because of a little blood, so neither am I.” Dad seemed befuddled by my stance on the matter. I didn’t understand why-this is what he had taught me, after all.  _ Never let your guard down, don’t let an injury stop you, never let anyone know what hurts you _ . “Where’s your med kit?”

 

Dad pointed to a box under the med table, and I took it out, grabbing some bandages. Dad had grabbed a water bottle and came to stand by me. 

 

“Do you need help with that?”

 

“No, I’m good.” I was wrapping up the injury and could tell that my dad wanted to say something, but was holding it in for whatever reason. I knew he’d speak with time, so I focused on tying the bandage on tight. 

 

“Where did you learn to fight like that?”

 

“I told you before, you trained me.”

 

“You used some techniques I don’t even know about.” Dad got wistful for a second. “You actually reminded me of a friend of mine.” 

 

“Really? Who?” I was curious about which of our many friends I had been imitating. 

 

“It doesn’t matter. She’s...gone now. Anyway, I should get back to training.” That’s not saying much. We had a lot of dead friends. 

 

Dad went to the salmon ladder and started climbing. Since it didn’t look like he was using it, I went over the practice dummy and started sparring with it. I imagined the dummy was Momentum and what I would do when I finally was able to hit him. He wasn’t a particularly competent fighter, but my window for actual damage was always narrow. I focused on quick hits, not telegraphing my moves, and focusing on Momentum’s core, all winning strategies in the past.

 

After a few minutes of working out in silence, a phone rang. My dad went over to the med table and picked up a cell phone. He didn’t say anything before hanging up and turning to me.

 

“That was Dig. ARGUS’ mission with the speedster is going south. They need you to come in.”


	15. Chapter 15

Dad led me up the stairs and out into the alley behind the club. There was a delivery truck with men unloading crates, and Dad’s old Ducati. I could see very quickly where this was heading. Dad grabbed his motorcycle helmet off of one handlebar, and gave me his spare off the other. He mounted the bike and waited expectedly for me to get on. I did, although hesitantly.

 

I had ridden the back of Dad’s bikes many times, probably even before Mom would’ve approved. I was definitely driving them before Mom approved. As Dad kicked the bike into gear, it felt just like old times. Leaning my head against Dad’s back, smelling his familiar cologne, trying not to giggle as we got up to speed. This man was not my father, no matter how perfect all of this felt. I was a stranger to this man, so I should treat him as a stranger myself. 

 

After what felt like hours, but was in reality probably only minutes, we pulled up to ARGUS headquarters. It looked exactly the same as it did in my time. After he squeezed us into a non-existent parking spot between two cars, I dismounted and took off my helmet, letting Dad do the same. We headed into the lobby, and that’s when I truly recognized the place. There were agents swarming about everywhere, dressed fully in black. Some had rather intimidating guns, while others appeared unarmed. Of course, they weren’t. Dad walked right up to the front desk, and presented what looked like an ARGUS security badge. It would make sense that he had one; I knew he worked missions for Waller every now and then, but it still seemed odd that he was so connected to the organization. When the guard asked who I was, Dad simply answered that I had a meeting with Director Waller. The guard made a phone call, keeping his voice incredibly low, and then waved us through. 

 

As we climbed stairs and took various elevators, it felt like we were navigating a maze. Of course Waller would design the place this way; it made a break-in improbable. Every time we passed another agent, they would give me a confused look. After a few encounters, I realized it was because while my dad was dressed like a normal person, and probably a common figure around the place, I looked like a teenager in her pajamas. At some point, I was going to have to get some real clothes. 

 

Finally, we entered what looked like the hub of the operation. There were agents scurrying everywhere, checking various monitors, some just sitting and typing, and dozens of screens blinking and alarms dinging. And at the center of it all was a woman wearing a tight black business suit, with a no nonsense expression on her face. She looked at us as we came in. Amanda Waller.

 

“Oliver Queen, how nice of you to join us. And I see you brought our time traveller.” So much for having a secret identity. I knew Aunt Lyla was going to brief the Director on everything, so I shouldn’t have let her tactic of laying all the cards on the table throw me off. But it still did. I felt off balance already. But my dad seemed to feel no such pressure.

 

“Director. I brought her in, as requested. I’ll leave you to talk.” And just like that, he wandered off. He didn’t tell me where he was going, didn’t leave me with any advice, nothing. Another reminder this man was not my father.

 

“So, Anna, is it?” I simply nodded. “How exactly did you sabotage your tracer algorithm?” 

 

Sabotage? I hadn’t touched the program. Mom and I agreed it was flawless, and it had worked perfectly the last time we used it.

 

“I did no such thing. I haven’t accessed the program since I turned it over to Agent Michaels.” Had Aunt Lyla sabotaged the program so that ARGUS wouldn’t be able to find Momentum? 

 

“Well, let me show you your handiwork so as to maybe jog your memory.” She walked over to a monitor on a desk and I followed. She typed in a few keys and executed my program. The speedster energy signatures traced his location to the few places he had been in the past two days searching for me, and included the face-off we had had at my future house. Then the energy signatures indicated that Momentum had sped a few blocks away and then stopped using his speed. 

 

“How is that possible? He hasn’t used his speed since our fight yesterday.”

 

“It’s possible because the program is faulty. Someone sabotaged it, and that person is you.” I hadn’t done anything to the program. I started typing in commands and looking over the program. It was exactly the same. It hadn’t turned off its search after a certain time, it wasn’t buggy, nothing. 

 

“This program is exactly the same as when I first made it. If it says the speedster stopped running, then he stopped running.” And made me feel so stupid that I hadn’t even chased after him to see if I could find him; I had assumed he was long gone and as a result had lost Tommy, again!

 

“So you’re telling me a man who can run beyond the speed of sound decided to forgo using that power to run away from you, and instead is just wandering around?” It sounded unlikely, unless-

 

“It would make sense if he knew that was how I had tracked him in the first place. I didn’t tell him that, but he could have figured it out. The first time, I found him because he wanted me to, but now that’s clearly not the case. He wants to be invisible.”

 

“Well, then we’ll just have to figure out another way to track him.”

 

“Good luck with that.” I started to walk away, but two armed agents blocked my path. 

 

“I’m not the one in need of luck. You’ll be staying here working on another way to track the speedster.”

 

“And why would I do that? I think I made it pretty clear I don’t want you anywhere near him.”

 

“You’re staying until you can track this speedster. Whether you do any work or not toward that goal is up to you. You’re not leaving.”

 

And before I knew it, I had been escorted into a small room with one chair, one table, and one computer. The door was locked and bolted behind me. Dad always said Amanda Waller was no good, and now I believed him.


	16. Chapter 16

Since I was stuck there for the time being, I decided to make the most of it. I hacked into the ARGUS mainframe and started looking through what they knew about biostimulants or related tech. I spent a few hours pouring through files, trying to make links between seemingly unrelated devices. It wasn’t going well. 

 

It was becoming clear that ARGUS didn’t have any of the tech needed for the biostimulant. But Curtis must’ve gotten that software from somewhere. Maybe there was another branch of government? It wasn’t much of a leap to go from ARGUS to some other government departments, so I made the jump. I was browsing through some interesting DOD files when there was a knock on the door. Did ARGUS agents knock now? I quickly closed and deleted all my searches.

 

“Come in.” My dad came in, balancing a tray on one hand. He set it down at my mini-workstation. A plate with a turkey sandwich, an apple, a bag of chips and a bottle of water.

 

“Figured you might be getting hungry.” I actually hadn’t realized I was until I smelled the food. 

 

“Thank you. And welcome to my unlawful detention.” Dad chuckled. In that moment, it just felt like my dad and me, joking around. I took a couple bites of my sandwich.

 

“It could be worse.”

 

“Yeah, at least it’s not Hong Kong.” Dad gave me a confused glance. So much for joking around.

 

“You know about Hong Kong?” Uh-oh. I spoke too soon, too enticed by the camaraderie I thought I felt. 

 

“Yeah, you mentioned it once, that you worked for Waller in Hong Kong. It’s why you speak Chinese.”  _ And why I speak it, too _ . In the awkward silence that followed, I ate a bit more sandwich.

 

“Right. Anyway, you shouldn’t let Waller intimidate you.”

 

“Waller doesn’t scare me,” I said with a bit of bravado. The woman was going to be dead in a year, she could bluster about all she wanted.

 

“You sound like you’ve had encounters with her before.”

 

“I really can’t say. Future knowledge and all.”

 

“Is this your first time travelling through time? Man, that feels so weird to say.” I knew my dad was pretty used to the concept in my time, but it had taken him awhile to get there. Now at least he had a head start.

 

“No, I’ve Travelled before. But this is my first time Travelling to 2015.”  I tried to lighten things up a bit. “It’s a nice year you’ve got here.”

 

“Thanks, I guess.” By this point, my sandwich was more than halfway done. “I guess I should let you get back to your search.”

 

“You know, she can keep me here as long as she wants, but there’s no way to find this speedster if he’s not speeding.”

 

“I know that, and you know that, so eventually she’ll figure it out. I’ll keep talking to them.” So he had been talking to Waller on my behalf? He hadn’t abandoned me after all! It made me relax knowing that Dad was in my corner. “In the meantime, just do what you can. Don’t give her any reason to believe you’re not working hard enough.”

 

“Got it. I can tinker with the program a bit, see if there are lower-level signatures I can identify.”

 

“Sure. What you said.” Dad made his exit, and I heard the door lock and bolt behind him. I was alone again, so there was no reason not to continue looking into what the DOD had lined up while I finished my lunch.

 

Their array of anti-metahuman weapon prototypes amazed me. I had never seen any of these in action, so they either all must’ve been failures or the program was shut down. Or both. Good to know that the government eventually trusted the Flash to keep Central City safe. Then one of the the projects caught my eye. It was a partnership between the government and STAR Labs, dated from after the particle accelerator explosion. Just as I was about to look into it, I heard the bolt on the door slide back.

 

I quickly closed and deleted my search history again. Another ARGUS agent came through. 

 

“You’re free to go now.”

 

“Wait, that’s it?”

 

“You’re free to go now.” Apparently Waller wasn’t one to admit that she was wrong, and I wasn’t one to question that any further. I got up and followed him out to the main lobby, where Dad sat waiting for me.

 

“Did you talk Waller into letting me go?”

 

“We had... a discussion. She saw that this was in her best interest.”

 

“Please tell me you didn’t exchange something in return for my release.”

 

“Well…”

 

“What did you give her?”

 

“A blank check. She gets to call me in for any mission if she drops the speedster thing completely.”

 

“What? No, that’s unacceptable! Let me go back there and-” Before I could march my way back through security, Dad caught a hold of my shoulder.

 

“Easy there. I probably saved a lot of agents’ lives by avoiding this speedster thing. And besides, she ends up drawing me into her missions because of Dig and Lyla anyway. So it was an easy trade to make.” I was still mad about it, but I decided to calm down. We headed back out to the Ducati, and on the ride back to the bunker, the day’s findings ran over and over again through my mind. Was it possible that STAR Labs and the government had teamed up? And, more importantly, what were they up to?


	17. Chapter 17

Once we got back to the bunker, I saw that Mom was waiting for us. As we came down, she spun around in her chair with a look of relief on her face. That relief quickly turned to anger.

 

“Where were you? You weren’t picking up your cell!” This was the worried Mom that I was used to. Every time a mission went south, we came back to this exact same tirade.

 

“I was sorting some things out at ARGUS. It’s all good now.”

 

“What? Did they want you to team up with Task Force X again?” Dad tipped his head slightly to the side, clearly telling what he had given up. “You’re kidding me. Amanda Waller is psycho, I don’t understand why you keep working with her!”

 

“Because sometimes she gets it right. And sometimes the world doesn’t really have a choice.” This hypothetical discussion of lines in the sand and moral dilemmas was fascinating, but I actually wanted to pick my Mom’s brain on another subject.

 

“Can you guys fight later? I’m on a bit of a clock here.” I turned to Mom to give her the lowdown. “ARGUS is no longer after Momentum, so that means I have free reign to go after him.”

 

“Oliver, can I talk to you for a second?” Mom stood up and grabbed Dad’s arm. “In private?” As they walked away, probably to argue some more about a moot point, I headed over to Mom’s work station. I started pulling up government and STAR Labs records, trying to see if I could find what I had discovered earlier. I found the project and pulled it up.

 

The project consisted of several prototypes, including the particle accelerator. It turns out the government had sold some of the fuel cells necessary for the particle accelerator to Dr. Harrison Wells, or, I guess, Eobard Thawne. That wasn’t particularly interesting. What was of interest was the research that was in development after the particle accelerator explosion: cancer. Why had Eobard Thawne been looking into curing cancer? It was admirable and probably advanced the research decades, but it seemed to be a distraction that didn’t further his purpose to get back to the future in any way. 

 

Just as I was starting to look through the details of the project, Mom came striding in, followed my Dad with his head hung slightly lower than normal.

 

“What are you doing?” Mom seemed to be in a better mood, although still slightly upset.

 

“I’m looking into STAR Labs projects. Did you know they were working with the government to cure cancer?”

 

“STAR Labs had research in a ton of different fields, so that doesn’t surprise me.”

 

“But this was after the particle accelerator explosion. They wouldn’t have the staff to be worrying about cancer, especially with their new focus on meta-humans. Why would Dr. Wells waste resources on this?”

 

“Dr. Wells is a humanitarian.” Mom leaned over my shoulder and looked at some of the notes on the project. “But that’s not Dr. Wells’ research.”

 

“It’s not? Whose is it then?”

 

“That’s Cisco Ramon’s work.” Cisco? He was working on curing cancer before Barry woke up? I knew he had been working on a few smaller projects to kill time, but why this one? 

 

“Do you know anything about this?”

 

“Nope.” She popped her “p”, just like at home. “If you want, though, I can ask him why-”

 

“No! No interfering with anything associated with the Flash!”

 

“Okay, no need to get all obsessive about it.” I breathed a sigh of relief and then relinquished my position at the computer. That’s when I saw that Dad had already changed into his gear, and that Dig and Roy were here as well.

 

“Laurel said she wouldn’t be able to join us tonight. She’s working late at the DA’s office.” That made my goal of avoiding her a lot easier. “But she did give us some intel on an illegal fight ring that we could break up if we want.” Dad made it sound so easy. Did he have any research on the organization at all, or was he just going to go in? Dig seemed a little bit more concerned.

 

“Okay, but with Laurel gone, we could really use a fourth.” And then he glanced at me.

 

“Me? You want me to go out on patrol with you?”

 

“Well, what else are you going to do? Sharpen your arrows?” Roy didn’t realize that sharpening my arrows would probably be better than going out and messing with the timeline. 

 

“I can’t just go out there in my gear and potentially alter the timeline.”

 

“Not in your gear.” Dad sounded like he had an idea, and it sounded like I wasn’t going to like it. “What if you went out as the Black Canary?”


	18. Chapter 18

I held Laurel’s bo staff in my hands, getting used to the weight of it while riding in the back of Dig’s van. I couldn’t believe I had agreed with this. But the team needed backup, and I wasn’t comfortable continuing to going out as a blue-hooded vigilante from the future. The police would let the blue girl go after it became clear she wasn’t going to show up again. And I remembered my mom’s words to me: I had a duty to do what I knew was right in my heart. This fight club was hurting a lot of people, and needed to be taken down.

 

It was strange to be wearing Laurel’s gear. It fit me well enough, but I wasn’t used to having all the buckles, leaving no room for adding knives or a tablet. I supposed with Mom as back-up I wouldn’t be needing computing power, but without its extra weight, or the weight of my quiver, I felt lighter. That, plus not wearing a hood, made me feel strangely naked. 

 

“You good?” My dad clearly noticed me getting a feel for everything.

 

“Fine. I think I got this.”

 

“Don’t worry. You look the part.” Well, being blonde didn’t hurt. I was lucky to have inherited my dad’s hair color and not my mom’s. Dad gave me a comm, and I put it in. Digg looked at me in the rearview mirror.

 

“You’re not going to take that out this time, are you?” He was clearly joking, but the comment still stung. I was only trying to keep him safe.

 

“No, I’m good.” Before I knew it, we were at a seemingly abandoned warehouse. I got out of the van, as everyone else stayed inside. I walked to the wall of the warehouse, and paused, listening for any sound. I could hear the faint sound of cheering, and followed the increasing applause to a half-open garage door. I ducked underneath, and saw the crowd. 

 

There were maybe a hundred people surrounding a cage made of chain-link fencing. Two men were inside on the raised platform, fighting tooth and nail to get the better of the other. They were each bloodied and slow in their movements, letting me know they’d been in there for a while. I brought my hand up to my ear, activating my comm. 

 

“I found the place. There are already two guys in the cage, fighting. I’ll look around for some leadership.” With no mask on and my staff back in the van, I didn’t look too out of place in the crowd. It wasn’t like the Black Canary was a well-known figure at this point in 2015 anyway. As I snuck around on the outskirts on the crowd, I saw two guys that clearly seemed like police. 

 

“Guys, there are two cops here. Should I proceed?” 

 

“No. Laurel said the SCPD weren’t getting involved in the operation yet, so hang back and see what they’re up to.” I heard what Dad wasn’t saying: check to see if they were dirty. The crowd erupted in even more fervent cheering. I looked up at the platform and noticed that one guy had knocked out the other. A portion of the crowd gathered around a brutish-looking man in a leather vest to collect their bets-including the two cops. I watched them accept their pay-outs take their places back amongst the crowd.

 

“The cops are dirty. I’ve identified one of the players.”

 

“Good. Remember, we’re looking for four.” An MC, one to track bets, and at least two for security and look-out. 

 

“Copy.” I looked up just in time to see the ringmaster enter the cage along with a bouncer, who dragged the unconscious would-be champion out of the ring. “Eyes on two and three.”

 

“And down goes the Iron Dragon.” The MC was a shorter man, but he made up for it in his boisterous attitude. He really got the crowd riled up. “Who will be next to challenge our reigning champion, the Rebel Rouser?!?” 

 

I took a better look at the so-called Rebel Rouser. He was probably 6’ 3” and 250 pounds of pure muscle. He wore a patriotic t-shirt as well as a red, white and blue bandana. Typical biker guy in his late twenties. So he was what Starling City had for pro fighters. I could take him down with one hand tied behind my back. But the mission wasn’t for me to get in the ring. It was to find the fourth man in the crowd.

 

As the Rebel Rouser took on his next victim, I slowly circled the crowd, noting the position of the bouncer, the MC and the wagerer and passing their locations on through my comm. I watched where people were congregating, where the action out of the ring was taking place, but my fourth man was nowhere to be found. After a few minutes, I heard the crowd take a collective gasp. I turned toward the platform and saw that the Rebel Rouser had been KO’d by his opponent, a giant of a man. Six and a half feet tall, muscles on muscles, and not a hair on his head. The MC rushed into the ring.

 

“And down goes Rebel Rouser! Well, folks, we knew his reign had to end sometime. Give it up for your new champion, Metal Crusher!” I watched carefully as the same bouncer as before hauled Rebel Rouser out of the cage. “Who will face our new champion?”

 

There was a silence among the crowd. It didn’t appear that anyone was going to step forward and take on the giant. If no one did, that meant the night was over. And if the night was over, everyone would leave before we could come in and bust the place up. No, someone had to fight this guy.

 

“Guys, I’m going in the ring.”

 

“You’re what?” Dad didn’t seem particularly impressed with my decision to abandon the plan.

 

“Look, you guys can come in on my signal to take out the players. But if I don’t do this now, it’ll all be for nothing.” Before Dad could argue, I shut off my comm and ran up into the cage.

 

“I’ll fight him.” The MC looked at me and laughed. The crowd took his lead and began laughing and jeering. The MC walked right up to me.

 

“Are you serious, kid? This guy could kill you.”

 

“Meaning the odds are against me and I get ten times the pay-out? Sign me up.”

 

“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t tell you so. What’s your name?”

 

“The Black Canary.”

 

“Alright, folks, we got a treat for you tonight. Metal Crusher will be fighting the Black Canary! Rules are simple-anything goes, no weapons. Fight until KO.” He sped out of the cage and locked the door behind him. I was stuck looking at the Metal Crusher, who had the biggest smile on his face.

 

“Well, if this isn’t the easiest money I’ve ever made. What, girl, you take karate classes or something?  Think you’re a big girl? I’m about to introduce you to pain, sister.” I had better things to do than respond to him. Now I was wishing that I had watched his earlier fight so I had at least some semblance of his fighting style. Too late for regrets now.

 

He came stumbling up to me and then threw all his weight behind a punch at my face. I easily dodged it and tripped him, sending him flying toward the ground. This just seemed to enrage him as he got back up. I turned on my comm.

 

“Guys, you can come in now.” I needed to make sure this fight lasted until the team had everyone under wraps. The man next went for my throat, beginning to choke me. Since I was a foot shorter than him, it meant he had to lean over slightly to do it, putting him off balance. Before I could lose too much air, I jumped up and hit both his knees, causing him to fall forward toward me. His hands came loose and he caught himself on his hands, pinning me under him. I wasn’t too satisfied with this position, however. Before he could react, I rolled out from under him while kneeing him in the groin, causing him to fall on his stomach. 

 

He began standing up, and, as he did, I launched myself on his back and wrapped my arms around his neck from behind. He immediately started prying my arms off with his hands, but I held fast to my grip. I added my legs around his chest to try and constrict air from there as well. He continuing clawing at my arms and then backed himself into the cage wall over and over again, very hard. It jarred my head pretty badly, but I kept hanging on. I could hear voices over my comm, but they felt rather distant to me. I couldn’t quite understand what they were saying. Then, I felt like I was falling. I hung on tight to the massive man as he fell down, and I fell on top of him. I stood up as the MC started unlocking the cage. That’s when Dad knocked him out and dragged him out of the room. As spots came into my field of vision, I thought,  _ Mission successful _ .  _ Now I can sleep.  _ And everything went black.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

I came to and rubbed my eyes. Groaning, I looked at my surroundings. Back at the bunker, lying on the medical table. A figure came into my peripheral view. My mom.

 

“You’re awake! Dig and Roy went home and Oliver’s in the shower so I said I’d keep an eye on you. Not that you need someone to keep an eye on you. From what Oliver said, you can handle yourself. You took on and defeated a guy twice your size. Maybe three times your size. Anyway, you probably have a concussion, and your head was definitely bleeding, so you need to stay here for a while and rest.”

 

“I don’t have a concussion.” I knew what a concussion felt like, and it came with a lot more pounding than this. The back of my head was a bit tender, so I rubbed my hand around back there. There was a wrap around my head, but I would be washing blood out of my hair tonight. “Did we get those guys?”

 

“Oh, right. Yes, you managed to turn in four criminals to the SCPD tonight.” Mom hesitated, which was rare for her in the verbal department. “Why’d you do it?”

 

“Why’d I do what?”

 

“Why’d you take on that guy?”

 

“To buy the team time to get in.”

 

“Yeah, but they would’ve found another way.” Now there was sympathy on her face. “You didn’t have to put yourself on the line for them like that, with no guarantee of making it out alive.”

 

“They’d do the same for me. Or at least, they will. Besides, I knew I could take that pansy.”

 

“Darn right you could.” And my dad was back. “That was some of the...some of the best fighting I’ve seen in awhile. I must’ve taught you well. Shower’s all yours, by the way.” 

 

I took that as my signal to leave. I needed a shower badly. And, considering my dad was dressed only in a towel, I didn’t need to watch my parents flirting.

 

The hot water felt amazing on my scalp. There wasn’t any shampoo, but I didn’t mind using bar soap to get the grime and blood out of my hair. It was rudimentary, but I’d cleaned up with worse. Even my gal pal Frankie, who was hardly a diva herself, thought I put too little time into my appearance. 

 

“You’re lucky my brother loves you for what’s on the inside, because girl, what’s on the outside needs conditioner,” she would say. It’s not like my profession required me to look a certain way. I tied my hair back with a hair tie when I fought, and whatever effect that had, I just dealt with. If her brother broke up with me because I had forgone make-up that day, then tough luck. I needed neither make-up nor a boyfriend to fight crime. 

 

I was shaken from my train of thought when I heard a knock on the door. 

 

“Uh, come in?”

 

“Hi, it’s me.” Oh, just my mom. “I brought you a couple sets of fresh clothes, in case you have to be here for a while. Also, the other ones were getting dirty and probably didn’t look that good walking into ARGUS. So I’m just going to leave those here. They’re older clothes of mine, when I was going through sort of a panda phase, so just don’t judge me, okay?”

 

A panda phase? Really? How did I not know about this? 

 

“Thank you. I really appreciate that.”

 

“And I’m heading home for the night. But good luck finding the speedster.” I heard the door close. I stood under the deluge until the water turned cold, letting me know I had overstayed my welcome. I got out and looked through the clothes Mom had left me and, sure enough, everything except the jeans had pandas on them. It made me smile. I put on some panda sweats and a panda top. In her clothes, I looked and smelled like her. I went back to the main part of the bunker to see my dad was sorting some of the medical supplies.

 

“You can have the bed tonight,” I offered. My dad looked up and smiled at my choice, or lack thereof, of clothes.

 

“No way. You sustained a head injury. You will be taking the bed every night until you’re all healed up. Come here.” 

 

I hopped up on the med table, and my dad began wrapping my head again. He did it so gently, it felt like he actually cared about me. I winced.  _ Don’t let yourself imagine too much. That will always get you in trouble _ .

 

“Too tight?” Dad must have misinterpreted my flinching.

 

“No, it’s just right. Thank you.”

 

“No problem.” I hopped down off the table and headed for the mattress. “Good night.”

 

“Good night.” I needed my rest, badly. But in the morning, I knew, I would be back looking for a way to save Tommy.


	19. Chapter 19

I woke up again to the sound of a training dummy being hit. Dad being aggressive again. I grabbed another t-shirt and some jeans from the pile I had made by the mattress. I went to the bathroom, changed, and glanced at myself in the mirror. I had bags under my eyes and my hair was a rat’s nest from the wrap. I figured I’d be fine without, so I tore it off and threw it in the trash. That’s when I noticed that Mom’s jeans were like capris on me. Whatever. I ran my fingers through my hair and splashed some water on my face, then tied my hair back. 

 

I went out to meet my dad in the training area, and he looked up as I came in. A frown appeared on his face.

 

“Where’d your head wrap go?” That’s what he was worried about? Priorities.

 

“I don’t need it, it’s fine. Can we train?” This seemed to throw him off guard. 

 

“If you want.”

 

“Good.” I needed to work on my reflexes, so I grabbed the escrima sticks. I tossed two at him and held onto the other two for myself. As we began sparring, it became clear that Dad was going easy on me-he avoided taking a clear head shot I had opened up, leaving me free in the next second to hold up a stick to his neck. He signaled his defeat.

 

“Don’t go easy on me.”

 

“But your head-”

 

“Momentum won’t care that I had a head injury. And if I lose, my brother won’t care that I had a head injury. Again.” We started off slow, but then our speed increased. I was able to dodged a blow to my hip, and retaliate by going for my dad’s shoulder. He blocked the attack, and we kept going. All of my focus was in the fight, so much so that I didn’t even hear Dig come in. 

 

“Are you two going to keep fighting like that all day?” His words brought my mind back to another time I had been training…

 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

“Are you two going to keep fighting like that all day?” I saw Jax standing in the doorway of the storage bay out of the corner of my eye. 

 

“I need to keep training until I can finally...beat...her!” I put all of my concentration back into sparring with Sara. I wasn’t on the Waverider for a luxury cruise, after all. I was here to learn about being a superhero first hand.  _ I shouldn’t be calling them heroes _ , I chided myself,  _ they’re legends _ . And if I couldn’t beat Sara Lance in a sparring match, how was I supposed to be defeating criminals in Star City and beyond?

 

“Okay, well, Ray says he has a way he thinks he can track the aberration.” Sara stopped fighting me at Jax’s words.

 

“Really? We’ll be right there.” She followed up toward the bridge and I followed them. A new way to track aberrations? That would certainly be useful to know.

 

I arrived at the bridge and saw that everyone was already there, including Dr. Palmer. They were gathered around Gideon, and there was something plugged into Gideon’s main interface. It looked like the gauntlet from Dr. Palmer’s ATOM suit. I figured that Dr. Palmer sometimes ran diagnostics through Gideon, but I didn’t know why we would all have to be here for it.

 

“Oh, good, you’re here,” Dr. Palmer addressed his captain. “So, I think we have a way to find our time pirate. The time seismograph is great at finding aberrations in the timeline, but once it points us to the time and place, it can’t track specific aberrant people. But, I theorize that person has an isotopic signature unique to the time period they’re from.”

 

“So you’re saying if we could pinpoint that signature, we could track them with it?” 

 

“It’s just a theory, though. I’m pretty sure the ATOM suit can isolate a disparate isotopic signature if given the right radius. Gideon’s tweaking it right now.” Ray seemed awfully proud of himself, as he should be. If they could track time criminals, their job would get a whole lot easier. “As long as our time criminal is from a distant enough time period, we should be able to narrow down where they are.”

 

“Ray, that’s fantastic. Everyone suit up. We’re going to track that traitorous trickster through Troy.” 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I had stopped sparring with Dad, and as I came back to the present, I noticed he seemed concerned.

 

“Was this all too much for your head?”

 

“No, it’s not that. I’ve just had a breakthrough on finding Momentum. It’s an older idea,but I’m willing to bet it will work in this case. Can you drive me to Palmer Tech?” It didn’t look like my dad had anything better to do. 

 

“You want to go back there? To see Felicity?” Dig was half-right. 

 

“I want to see her, and Dr. Palmer. I think they have the tech there that I need to put my plan into action.”

 

“Palmer? Count me out. I’d rather stay here and train.” There it was again, my dad getting funny when Dr. Palmer’s name came up. In my time, he and Dr. Palmer were on good terms. They didn’t see each other often, but they seemed like friends when they did. “You can just take the Ducati over there.”

 

Fine by me. I grabbed the keys off the table, waved bye to Dig and got on my merry way to Palmer Tech. On the way, I started creating a program in my head that would be able to search for the traces of isotopes I would need. I just had to hope there was enough separation between the time I was from and now to create differences in radiation levels.

 

I got to the impressive glass building and felt a lot more confident than the last time I was here. The jeans were a big step up from sweatpants, and even the panda t-shirt seemed professional comparatively. I strode up to the security guard and announced myself as Anna, to see Felicity Smoak. He consulted a list and then gave me a visitor’s badge. I was a bit surprised that Mom would put me on a visitor’s list, but I wasn’t complaining. I took the elevator to the top floor and found myself at the entrance of a few offices, all surrounded by glass. I walked by a couple, but none had Mom’s or Dr. Palmer’s name on it. When I finally got to the corner glass office, I almost screamed.

 

There, for anyone to see, was my mother making out with a shirtless Ray Palmer.


	20. Chapter 20

I quickly turned and ran the other way before either of them could see me. I saw a bathroom in the corner and ducked in. What had just happened?

 

I ran through possibilities in my head. Was it just an innocent joke gone awry? No, it was definitely more than a chaste kiss. Had Dr. Palmer, goodness forbid, been forcing himself on my mother? No, that was nothing like him. He was the sweetest guy you could ever meet. So that just left the possibility that my mom and Dr. Palmer were...an item.

 

Things started to click in my head. Why Dad had gotten weird in this time period whenever Dr. Palmer was mentioned. The delay between my parents’ first date and them getting together the first time. Heck, even the fact that Dad always insisted I call Dr. Palmer by his last name, even though I called almost all his other friends by their first name. I just couldn’t believe it. My mom and Dr. Palmer together. But in my time, Mom had Dad, and Dr. Palmer and his wife were perfect together. How could this be happening? And more importantly, why hadn’t anyone ever bothered mentioning it to me? Did they just want to erase the event from history? Or maybe, it was just a brief fling? Right, like my mom would have a brief fling with her boss. For her to be that unprofessional, things would have to be serious. 

 

I stayed in the bathroom until someone else came in. I pretended to be washing my hands, and, after drying them off, I went back out into the hallway. I approached the offending office, and slowly turned the corner. I looked through the glass panels and saw that there was no funny business going on. Both Mom and Dr. Palmer, wearing a shirt, were leaning over a computer screen. I knocked on the door. They quickly jumped away from each other, and Mom came to open the door.

 

“Anna? What are you doing here?”

 

“I actually came here for Dr. Palmer’s help with a theory I have.”

 

“You need my help?” Dr. Palmer must’ve heard me from over at his station, and came over to the doorway. “Hi, I’m Ray.” He held out his hand for me to shake, which I did.

 

“I’m Anna.” His face got dark for a second, but quickly brightened upon glancing at my shirt.

 

“Are you Felicity’s sister?”

 

“No, we’re not related.” I clarified as quickly as humanly possible. 

 

“Oh, it’s just with the wardrobe choices and the hair, I just thought-”

 

“Well, you thought wrong.” Okay, enough with the snippy. “I was wondering if you could help me. Do you have any equipment that might facilitate identifying specific isotopic signatures from a distance?”

 

Dr. Palmer seemed taken aback by my bluntness. “That’s certainly a very specific request. What do you want to use that for?”

 

“I’m trying to track someone.”

 

“Track someone?”

 

Luckily, Mom jumped in to clarify Dr. Palmer’s confusion.“She’s a friend of mine working on a science experiment. That’s all.”

 

“Well, tracking isotopic signatures wouldn’t be much help. There aren’t enough variations from person to person to track specifically.” While Dr. Palmer was right if my target happened to be from this time period, he wasn’t thinking fourth dimensionally.

 

“What if the person I was trying to track was from the future?”

 

“Hypothetically, yes, if they were from a far enough point in the future, then their signature would be different.”

 

“Great. Then let’s get started.” I pushed back Dr. Palmer and entered his office. Or was it a lab? It didn’t look like any CEO business was happening with this salmon ladder around, so I decided lab was my best bet. And there, hanging in the back, was the ATOM suit.

 

“I really can’t have you poking around back here. There’s quite a bit of proprietary technology, and-eeep!” He didn’t seem too happy that I had disconnected the right gauntlet from his suit.

 

“Don’t worry, Dr. Palmer, I won’t hurt the ATOM suit. I’m probably more knowledgeable about it than you are.” I started programming the gauntlet to search for isotopic signatures, attached it to the nearest computer, and then pointed it at him. 

 

“Careful, that has highly concentrated laser-” Not listening to his worries, I shot the detection beam at him. I glanced over at the monitor, and saw that the readings had come up. 

 

“Anna, what are you doing?” I ignored my mom and shot the detection beam at her. The readings came up almost exactly the same. Then I pointed it at myself. I put down the gauntlet and turned toward the screen. Dr. Palmer came up behind me. 

 

“Your readings have identifiable variations from ours.” I nodded in satisfaction. The test had proven exactly what I wanted. There were detectable differences between people from my time and people from this time. The radiation levels had statistical significance. “That’s not possible.”

 

Dr. Palmer backed away from me, and then pointed his finger at me in disbelief. “You-you’re… but you can’t be.” The lieutenant of the Waverider and Traveller extraordinaire, disbelieving of time travel? Now I’d seen it all.

 

“From the future? Yes, time travel is real and right now, your time period is vulnerable to attack. I’m here to defeat a supervillain from the future, and I really need your tech to help me track him down. Can I borrow it for a couple hours?”

 

Dr. Palmer gulped. I had no doubt his desire to do the right thing would outweigh any distrust of strangers. It also helped that he was in shock and I had Mom to push him over the edge. His girlfriend. Dear me.

 

“Ray, honey, you can trust Anna. If she says she needs the tech, then she really needs it.” Dr. Palmer composed himself and nodded.

 

“Right. If a time traveller from the future needs my help, then I need to give it. Go ahead, take the gauntlet around for a bit. Just please don’t hurt her.” I had to laugh. Even in a rudimentary phase, Dr. Palmer was still in love with his exosuit.

 

“You got it. Thanks, Dr. Palmer.”

 

“Just one question-do we know each other in the future?”

 

“I can’t really tell you that. But I can tell you that what you do can make a difference.” Dr. Palmer seemed to be somewhat inspired by that, no matter how meaningless the line was. I nodded to my mom and then headed out. Next stop: the bunker.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------

 

Luckily, no one was at the bunker so I didn’t have to sneak around. Dad and Dig must be out doing whatever unemployed vigilantes do with their time. After I changed into my gear, it was back out onto the Ducati. I was able to quickly run an interface between my tablet and the ATOM gauntlet. It probably was a bit more difficult than interfacing it with Gideon, but I did my best. I ran the scan on myself again and saw that I got the same results as I had back at Palmer Tech. I expanded the search, thinking how much easier it would be to scan the area from the sky. No wonder Dr. Palmer designed the ATOM suit to fly.

 

After about an hour of driving and scanning, I got a hit. Two isotopic signatures statistically different from those around it, but statistically the same as mine. An abandoned warehouse in the Glades. I put away my tablet, and started climbing my way up to the roof. Once I was up there, I used the gauntlet to pinpoint where in the warehouse they were. There was one figure staying still in the corner, while one figure was pacing on the other side of the open room. I put the gauntlet away and walked up to the door on the rooftop. Locked. I picked the lock quickly and hurried down the stairs beyond the door. They led to a series of catwalks. I nocked an arrow and went out onto one of them as quietly as possible.

 

I surveyed the area below me. Tommy was sleeping or unconscious and chained to a support column in the corner of the room, and Momentum was pacing around wildly on the other side, just like the gauntlet had indicated. What I had failed to notice before was the sheer insanity of Momentum’s pacing. There was no pattern to it. He was making himself a difficult target to hit, but why? Is this what he did all the time, assumed someone was trying to attack him? Or was there something more to it?

 

I didn’t want to stick around and find out what this psychopath was up to. I took a breath, took aim, and let my arrow fly.


	21. Chapter 21

Momentum hesitated for a split second from his pacing, causing my arrow to pierce his left shoulder instead of his heart. As he turned around, I shot a grappling arrow at the ceiling beams and rappelled down to meet Momentum face to face. He seemed immobilized by the arrow in his shoulder, and I took the opportunity to sock him in the face. It felt good. Then a series of kicks to his abdomen and another crack to the head. Momentum started laughing but I didn’t relent. Two more punches to the face: one for Tommy and one for me. 

 

“So this is your vengeance, sweetheart?” he managed to croak out. He straightened back up, and sped toward me. He held me with one hand by my throat and lifted me into the air. I felt him constricting all of the air out of me. I couldn’t breath, and I was beginning to see spots. 

 

“I was kind to you! I gave you time! I haven’t laid a finger on your precious brother, but now I’m thinking better of my generosity!” He dropped me and sped off. I grabbed my throat and gasped for air. My head was pounding, but at least I could see straight now. When I looked up, I saw he had Tommy by the throat like he had had me. Tommy was still unconscious.   
  


“No! Don’t!” I cried. Tommy wouldn’t be able to last as long as me. “I’ll do anything!”

 

“Anything?”

 

“Yes, just put him down.” 

 

“You understand why I’m upset, don’t you? You understand that you broke our little deal?”

 

“Yes, I do.” Tommy was running out of time.

 

“What do you have to say?”

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” I was begging at this point. I didn’t care.

 

“Good girl.”He dropped Tommy, and I had to restrain every muscle in my body from going over to check on him. I could see that he was breathing, and that was going to have to be enough. “Now let’s talk about how you’re going to make this right. You’re going to bring me the biostimulant in two days.”

 

Two days? That wasn’t near enough time. But I didn’t have a choice now. I had messed with Momentum, and now he was messing back.

 

“Yes, I will.” I would manage it somehow. “When you bring me Tommy, unharmed, in two days, I will give you the biostimulant.” 

 

“Let’s just hope you follow instructions this time, Queenie.” He sped off with Tommy before I could say anything. I just stayed knelt on the ground, coughing, my hand to my throat. I had no idea how I was going to pull this off. It was doubtful I even could.

 

I didn’t have time to mourn my losses. I got back on the Ducati and headed back to the bunker. As I did, I replayed Momentum’s craven antics over and over again in my head. I should’ve known he wouldn’t appreciate me ambushing him and going against the deal we struck. True to form, he let me kick him around a bit before using his speed. Why did he do that? Was it to equalize our powers? Did he just want a nemesis he could be on par with? Was he that much of a lunatic? I thought back to my first encounter with Momentum…..

  
  


\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I was out on a routine patrol when an alert came in over the police scanner that there were several robberies in progress, all by something fast. Since I was the closest to the area, I told Mom that I’d go check it out. And I reassured Dad I’d call for back-up if I decided to engage the target. I showed up to the most recent robbery location on my bike. It was a grungy old bar in the Glades. Not exactly a prime target for a robbery. The police were already there in spades. They had set up a barricade, and there had to be about a dozen officers. They must’ve known they were dealing with something serious.

 

“Overwatch, the SCPD are already on site.”

 

“This might not be a threat they’re able to handle. Stay back and do some reconnaissance.” 

 

“Copy.”

 

I ducked into the alley by the bar, looking to see if the thief was still around. Nothing. Then I felt a whoosh of air blow past me. I saw a streak of blue lightning rush into an abandoned building across the street. The police must have seen it, too, as they followed the streak into the building.  _ No _ , I thought,  _ not against a speedster _ . I quickly followed the police into the building, being careful to stay hidden. 

 

The speedster was standing still as the police surrounded him. He was wearing a purple get-up, meaning he was different from any other speedster we’d seen before. 

 

“Overwatch, it’s a speedster. An unknown.”

 

“Maverick, do not engage. Repeat, do not engage.”

 

“The SCPD are already in this. I have to protect them! Call in the Tornado Twins.” With my parents yelling about what I was not to do in my ear, I nocked an arrow and crept toward the scene unfolding before me. 

 

“Get down with your hands in the air!” The police all had their guns pointed at the speedster. They clearly weren’t joking around.

 

“No, no, no, this won’t do at all. I need a real nemesis. Someone with some character. Someone like...her.” The speedster had seen me hiding in the shadows. As we made eye contact, he all but muttered to himself, “Yes, you’ll do quite nicely.”

 

It all happened so fast. The scene that would haunt my nightmares for years. A few officers discharged their weapons, but, before I could blink, the blue lightning struck. Every police officer fell to the ground, their necks snapped.

 

I screamed.

 

Panicked voices sounded in my comm, but I ignored them. I was completely frozen. The speedster and I just stared at each other. 

 

“You can call me Momentum. I’ve been looking for an arch-rival, and it appears you’re it, sweetheart. Tell that to anyone else who dares come to fight me.” And he sped away. I continued to stare at where he was, unmoving. I was finally able to make sense of one of the voices in my comm. I had never heard my dad so scared.

 

“Honey, are you alright? I’m headed to your location. Please say something.”

 

“Maverick to Green Arrow, I’m fine. But he killed...he killed everyone. Everyone’s dead.” I began to gain what composure I had. “Maverick to Overwatch, alert the SCPD that they have ten...eleven fallen officers at my location. Headed back to the bunker now.” There was more chatter on my comm, but I turned it off. I sped home on my bike, with only one thought in my mind: all of their officers are dead because of me. The speedster killed them all as a display for me. 

 

\--------------------------------------------------------

 

I came back to the 2015 bunker, just as mentally broken as that night in the future. Momentum knew exactly how to push my buttons. I came down the stairs, intent on getting to the computer and doing some more research, but before I could, Dad and Dig rushed up to me. 

 

“Where have you been?” Dad sounded unduly concerned. “Why are you wearing your gear?”

 

“I went to go fight Momentum.” Dig seemed confused.   
  


“Wait, I thought you told ARGUS you couldn’t track him?”

 

“Yeah, but then I figured it out. The mission failed, again.”

 

“Well maybe that’s because you went out on your own! And with your injury at that!” Why was Dad so mad? Who cares what I did, as long as I could get his son back? 

 

“My injury isn’t stopping me from stopping him!”

 

“Did you even have a plan?”

 

“I knew what I was doing. The next time I go up against him, I’ll-”

 

“There won’t be a next time for you. We’ll take care of it from here. You’re lacking in good judgment and I never should’ve let you out of my sight in the first place!”

 

I grabbed a tennis ball off the counter and handed it to Dig. I’d seen my dad perform an archery field sobriety test before. Dig knew what to do. He tossed the ball in the air, and I nocked an arrow, drew it and shot it. It went straight through the tennis ball and wedged itself into the concrete wall on the other side of the bunker.

 

“I. Don’t. Need. You.” I articulated each word as clearly as possible, keeping my voice low. My dad acted like I had hurt him.  _ Not possible _ , I reminded myself.  _ You mean nothing to him. Get a grip _ . I stormed past them to the back of the bunker, changed into my dumb panda clothes and snuck back up the stairs. I was about to get out the alley when my stomach rumbled. I hadn’t realized I was hungry, but some food wouldn’t hurt. I decided to take a look around the nightclub.

 

Verdant was...exactly what I had imagined. It was what probably passed as cool in 2015, but could not look more outdated to my eyes. I walked across the dance floor and hopped over the counter to start foraging through the bar. Nothing but bottles upon bottles of alcohol.

 

“Hey, you can’t be back there.” I turned around and saw Roy and gave him an awkward wave. “Oh, it’s just you. Did Oliver ream you out so bad you need a drink? Because I’ve been there.”

 

“No, I was just looking to see if you guys had any food. I haven’t eaten...” How long had it been? “In a while.”

 

“Ah, I got it. Come on upstairs, I think I’ve got some protein bars or something.” I followed him up to an office that overlooked the entire club. It was full of crates and more alcohol, but also had a desk. Roy walked behind it and grabbed a bottle of water and some bars out of a drawer and handed them to me. He sat down on a couch near the desk and I joined him.

 

“So, any luck finding that speedster?” I ripped into the first bar and took a bite. I didn’t know exactly how hungry I was until I tasted real food. I tried the best I could to pace myself.

 

“Yeah, actually. He beat me, though.”

 

“I find that hard to believe. After watching you in that cage match last night, I don’t believe anybody could beat you.”

 

“Then you’ve clearly never fought a speedster.” I knew that much to be true. Being this close to Roy was so weird. He was young, only a year or two older than me, It was hard to recognize him like this, considering how few times I had seen him in my life. 

 

“So Oliver was pretty upset?”

 

“Yeah. He had no reason to be, though.”

 

“Didn’t he? You went out without him. That was reckless.”

 

“Maybe.  But it’s not his fight.”

 

“Behind that bad temper and all that bravado, the guy actually cares. You need to give him a chance to.”   
  


“Hey, babe, have you seen last night’s receipts?” a voice called through the doorway. “I looked in the drawer but they weren’t- hello.” 

 

Aunt Thea appeared in the entryway, clearly surprised to see me. Like Roy, she was young. Extremely young. Only a few years older than me, but she carried herself like a warrior. She had clearly already been trained. Dad always said one of his regrets is that Aunt Thea was trained too young, but I knew she had been older than me when her father trained her. There was an awkward moment before Roy stood up.

 

“Thea, this is Anna. She’s a friend of mine from the streets.” It was a good a cover as any.

 

“You must be Thea. When I heard Roy was working here, I thought it was high time I looked him up.”

 

“So he could feed you protein bars?” She wasn’t jealous, nor did she have any reason to be, obviously, but she was certainly suspicious. “Roy, can I talk to you for a second?”

 

Roy followed her out of the room and closed the door behind him. Great, two more people arguing about me behind my back. Whatever. I finished the other protein bars quickly, in case I had to make a speedy retreat. It wasn’t long after I finished that Roy and Thea came back in. I decided now would be a good as time as any to say my good-byes.

  
“I was just leaving. It was nice to see you, Roy. And to meet you, Thea.” Aunt Thea didn’t look too happy that I was leaving, but I doubted she would be any happier if I was staying. I headed down the stairs to the main floor of the club, wondering what to do next. I needed access to Mom’s computer in the bunker, and that wouldn’t come without a cost. I weighed Roy’s words in my head. I’d have to face Dad again.  _ It’s for Tommy _ , I reminded myself. With that, I turned toward the bunker and put on my bravest face. Time to ask for my dad’s help.


	22. Chapter 22

I headed back down the bunker steps after completely steeling myself. I went through my talking points, vetting them for doing as little damage to the timeline as possible. I went through Professor Stein’s guidelines for avoiding an aberration. I was confident in this plan; I had to be.

 

As I got to the bottom of the steps, I saw that my parents were both staring at a monitor and arguing about something. I stepped up behind them and cleared my throat. They both turned to face me.

 

“I’m sorry,” I said as bluntly as possible. Might as well just get it over with, possibly catch them off guard. “I shouldn’t have gone out half-cocked or without at least letting you guys know.”

 

Dad glanced at Mom, and she nodded. It looked like she was telling him it was okay to accept my apology. “Alright. Apology accepted.”

 

He turned back to the monitor and so did Mom. Did he think that was all I came down here for? He was making this asking for help thing so difficult.

 

“Actually, I need your help.” Dad turned around again.

 

“With fighting the speedster?”

 

“Not exactly. I...well, I made a deal with the speedster.”

 

“You what?” Dad used his lowest tone, indicating the highest level of rage. Apparently making a deal with the enemy was exactly as abhorrent as I had first thought it was.

 

“It was the only way to make sure he wouldn’t hurt my brother. I had to promise him something in return for keeping my brother safe. So I did.”

 

“And what exactly did you promise?”

 

“I told him that I could get him something within a week. So I’ve been doing the best I can to figure out how to get him this object.”

 

Mom finally piped up. “What do you mean, you’ve been doing the best you can? Exactly how long ago did you make this deal?”

 

I hesitated. This was not going well. “The first time I fought Momentum, I made the deal.”

 

Dad’s quiet rage somehow increased. “So you’re saying that you made a deal with an evil speedster and didn’t tell us? You’ve been going around this whole time behind our backs?!?”

 

“It’s not like that. He doesn’t want anything of yours, really.” How could he think that I had somehow betrayed him? I thought we were getting to a decent place. “I just wasn’t asking for your help.”

 

Mom bravely chimed in again. “So why are you asking for it now?”

 

“Because during our last fight, he moved the time table. I now only have two days to get him this object. And I’m running out of ideas on how to get it.”

 

Dad pulled up two chairs and sat down in one of them. “Sit down and tell us everything you know.”

 

“Next year, an engineer is going to invent...a piece of technology. The speedster wants it now. That means I have to piece it together myself. I figure that the components of the technology must already exist if it’s this close in the timeline to being invented. The object has a casing, which exists at Palmer Tech. It also has a power source that I can get from the inventor himself. Then there’s the chemical part. I don’t have any idea where that came from, or the software.”

 

Both Mom and Dad looked overwhelmed from my data drop. Dad spoke up first. “So what you’re saying is that you’re from over a year in the future?”

 

Wait, my dad hadn’t even gotten past the first two words of my explanation? “When did you think I was from?”

 

“I don’t know, maybe in a couple of months?” That’s when it clicked for me. Dad was in the middle of facing Ra’s al Ghul. He wasn’t expecting to live another year. He probably figured he trained me and died, which is why I had been going out on my own. My heart broke. My parents and Dig had told me that Dad had lived through some dark times, even that there were times he had assumed this life would lead him to his death, but experiencing it firsthand was something else. 

 

“When I’m from doesn’t matter. Where I can get these last two components is what’s important.” I turned to my mom. “Do you have any idea of any experiments with cellular regeneration?”

 

“Cellular regeneration? Like what you were looking into at STAR Labs?” I was lost by what Mom was saying. I hadn’t been looking at anything related to cellular regeneration at STAR Labs. Cisco was curing cancer...unless they were doing it by reverse telomere telemetry. Mom must’ve been on my wavelength, because she pulled up the specs for the project.

 

“I put a little bit more thought into why Cisco would be looking into curing cancer. Between when the particle accelerator exploded and the rise of metahumans, STAR Labs was all about humanitarian projects. They took in a coma patient, they worked on improving suits for firefighters and…” Mom made a few final strokes on the keyboard. “They put a lot of money into curing cancer, which a lot of people were afraid the dark matter wave would have caused.” 

 

A newspaper article came up, an item near the back of the technology section of Central City Picture News. The headline read “STAR Labs to Cure Cancer?” and below that “When will Harrison Wells quit?”    
  


“The press coverage of STAR Labs after the particle accelerator explosion was nasty. The entire country was upset, but Central City especially. It hasn’t gotten better now that metas are on the loose.” 

 

“So what does this have to do with cellular regeneration?”

 

“That was the thrust of the project: curing cancer in a way that no one had considered before, through-”

 

I cut in. “Reverse telomere telemetry. Keep cells from flipping the kill switch.” 

 

As expected, Dad was more than a little lost. “So you’re saying that the chemical they were using to cure cancer is part of the machine that your evil speedster needs us to build?”

 

“Precisely.” I responded. “We need to get that chemical. Then we go to Palmer Tech and get the casing, then convince the inventor to modify his power source and give it to us then combine it all with some sort of code.” 

 

“I can code it!” I gave Mom a look. No way was I letting her code the biostimulant. Far too risky. “What? These fingers can code anything!”

 

“Sorry. Not letting you code future tech. I’ll do it myself.” It would be a challenge, but I’d think of something. 

 

Dad took a deep breath. “I can’t help with most of that, but I can call someone I know at STAR Labs to deliver the chemical to us...quickly.” I knew exactly who Dad meant, but that was not an option. Not a minute of the Flash’s time could be diverted from Central City.

 

“Actually, that won’t be necessary.” Mom clearly had something up her sleeves. “There’s an auxiliary warehouse here in Starling that has a sample of the chemical. They shelved the project after they started helping fight metas. Should be more than enough. I’ll call Cisco and-”

 

“No. We’ll break in.” I couldn’t have Cisco distracted or Dr. Wells hearing about this. “Just show me where in the facility it is, and I’ll- we’ll go nab it.”

 

Both Mom and Dad seemed hesitant on that plan, but I knew that, as a Traveller, this was the only way I could go. Finally, it felt like things were coming together.


	23. Chapter 23

We arrived at the facility and snuck around to the back. There wasn’t much in the way of security, just a door with card access. I quickly dispatched the obstacle with my skeleton key. We were in. The auxiliary facility was actually quite large. There were shelves pretty much as far as the eye could see both directions, and they were quite tall.    
  


“Felicity, where’s the chemical?” Oliver asked into his comms.

 

“According to the most updated specs, it should be eleven shelves to your left, down a bit, and on the top shelf.” We headed down the shelves, and I counted as I went. The place was so familiar and yet not. The last time I was at this facility, it was in plain daylight, and I had permission to be there. Having a STAR Labs employee badge had its perks. Still, I was familiar enough with the facility not to get tripped up in the dim emergency lights.

 

“How far down the aisle is it?”

 

“It’s in the area labelled ‘G’, which could be for ‘government’ or ‘generosity’ or ‘goodwill’, though it’s probably just an indiscriminate letter.” Mom’s babbling over the comms was actually quite reassuring. I was so used to it that going out on missions in silence felt lonely.

 

“We found it. Now we just need to get to the top shelf.” Dad started to climb, but I pulled down on his arm.

 

“I’m a lot lighter than you. I’ll do the climbing.” The shelves were pretty far apart, so I had to lift myself from one to the other like I was doing a pull-up. Good thing I loved the salmon ladder. After hoisting myself to the highest shelf, I crawled around looking for what could be the chemical.

 

“What exactly am I looking for?”

 

“It should be a small box, labelled G13X-1.” I looked around until I found a small black box. I didn’t see a label anywhere, so I opened it up. There was a styrofoam container inside, and once I looked in there, I saw a tube with an orange liquid in it. The tube was labelled “G13X-1”. I repackaged it, and made my way down the shelves. Dad looked at me expectantly.

 

“I got it.” Dad seemed relieved. And that was the only moment of rest we were going to get.

 

“Hey, who’s over there?” Two security guards shining flashlights came to the end of the aisle, standing between us and the exit. “Hey, Bob, over here!”

 

Another guard came to the other end of the aisle as well. We were stuck. I looked at Dad and nodded. We headed toward the two guards and quickly moved to knock them out. I’d forgotten how fun it was to fight alongside Dad: our movements were perfectly choreographed to one another and we fought as one. When he kicked one guard, sending him stumbling back, I maneuvered my guy to be in his path, forcing one guard to fall on the other. Once they were both down, two quick hits to the head knocked them out. I turned to face the guard at the other end of the aisle. I saw him aim his gun at Dad. I heard a noise and- 

 

I didn’t hesitate. I jumped toward Dad, pushing him out of the way. I felt the sting of the bullet.

 

I landed harshly on my side, the same side the bullet had gone through. The same bullet that would’ve gone through my dad’s heart. Dad nocked an arrow and shot it at the guard. I heard the zap of a taser arrow.

 

“Come on, we gotta get you out of here.” Dad leaned over me, checking the damage to my chest hole as he did.

 

“Retrieve arrow. Evidence.” I managed to grunt through the pain. He nodded, got up, and came back to my vision thirty seconds later. “Erase footage.”

 

“Already taken care of.” Thanks, Mom. 

 

“We gotta get you to a hospital.” Glad to know Dad cared, but that wasn’t going to work for me.

 

“No. I’m fine. Just get me back to the bunker. Stitches are all I need.” Dad seemed like he was about to disagree, but I jumped in before he could. “When were you last at a hospital?” 

 

Dad seemed to acknowledge the point and helped me get up. I really wasn’t feeling that bad; I had had much worse. As we sauntered toward the exit, I was taken back to the time of my last bullet wound.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Are you sure you can handle this? It’s not a street gang. This is the Bratva we’re talking about.” Dad was worrying for nothing. This was everything my training was about. It was just another day in the Bunker, going over the last minute details of my mission. 

 

“I’m positive. It’s just a reconnaissance mission. Besides, they don’t like you. If you get caught, they’ll kill you on sight.” Dad’s face darkened.

 

“I’m not sure they won’t do the same for you.” 

 

“A moment’s hesitation is all I need to get the best of them.”

 

“Only if you’re sure.”

 

“Positive.” Dad gave me a hug.

 

“Thank you for doing this for me.”

 

“No one else to do it.” I had accepted the mission whole-heartedly. Our operation required information about the Bratva’s latest dealings, and, if the Green Arrow wasn’t able to get in there and figure it out, then Maverick would. Was it suspicious he had waited until Mom had gone out of town for a tech conference to come up with this mission? It hadn’t escaped my notice. But Dad could run comms, so I’d be fine.

 

I got a block from the target building, climbed a fire escape, and jumped roof to roof until I was on the adjacent building.

 

“In position.” I pulled out the fun techy binoculars that Cisco had rigged up. I turned on the X-ray mode and held them up to my eyes. I looked at the building. That was definitely Bratva in there. Couldn’t look more like a Russian mob if they tried. One of them was counting money, a few were sitting around drinking, a few more were smoking. One was working on a car. So far, very shady, but nothing illegal. I put away the binoculars and jumped onto the building itself.

 

“I need to get to where I can hear them. There’s a catwalk on the inside of the warehouse, and I can use that.”

 

“Okay. Get as close as you can.” I jimmied one of the vents open, and slowly lowered myself down. When I was hanging from the vent, I dropped down onto the catwalk below. No one seemed to have heard me. I walked around until I was practically on top of the guys drinking. I flattened myself down and listened.

 

“ _...will be within the hour. If he doesn’t have the goods, I will stop being so forgiving. _ ” Hooray for my Russian fluency.

 

“ _ I told you, last time should’ve been his last chance. Sergey is unreliable. _ ” Sergey! That was the name of the arms dealer they had been contracting with. So it was munitions they were after. That was a step up from the game we thought they were playing. 

 

_ “Right you were, friend, I _ -” The balcony made a screeching noise, and three men looked up. “ _ Who’s there?  _ Who’s there?” 

 

“I’ve been made,” I mumbled into my comm. I got up and made a run for it toward the vent. Bullets ricocheted off the catwalk, but I ignored them. I couldn’t return fire without outing myself as an archer, so I just ran like the wind. I jumped up and grabbed a hold of the lip of the vent and started pulling myself up. 

 

“Are they shooting at you?”

 

“Not now!” I felt a sharp pain in my left calf. I’d been hit. I tried not to react, to let the Bratva see any weakness. I was able to pull myself onto the roof, and I quickly started jumping and rolling from building to building again. It was significantly harder with my newly developed limp, but I made do. I was able to climb back down to where my bike was, and kicked it into high gear.

 

“Are you alright?” My Dad’s worried voice sounded into my ear. 

 

“I’m fine. I’m just going to speed around for awhile, make sure I’m not being tailed.” I took a circumlocutious route around the city, until I finally determined that no one had been following me. I made my way into the bunker, and slowly limped to the central console. Dad ran toward me.

 

“Honey, what happened? Were you hurt?” I sat myself down at the medical table, rolled my left pant leg up, and took off my boot. “You’ve been shot!” 

 

I had watched everyone I knew and loved come in and out of here with all types of wounds, bullet and otherwise. They never complained, never cried, and always acted like it was a minor inconvenience. Since I was little, I had watched my dad shake off bullet wounds and concussions. I wasn’t going to be a pansy in front of him or anyone else.

 

“I’m fine. It’s just a through and through.” Meaning twice the number of holes. I lifted the leg up onto the table as best I could. “If you could just sew it up, that would be great.” 

 

Dad took out the suture kit and began stitching it up. “Honey, you should’ve come here sooner. You’ve lost a lot of blood.” 

 

“I feel fine. Just a little holey.”

 

“Very funny. Maybe I shouldn’t have sent you out on that mission…”

 

“No! We got some good intel out of it, so this was totally worth it!” Dad seemed less than convinced, but willing to concede the point.

 

“Okay. But no more missions for at least another week, alright?”

 

“Deal.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

We finally got back to the bunker. Dad helped me get down the stairs and onto the medical table. He took my jacket off, and began pressing a cloth to the wound.

 

“Oh my God. Were you shot?” Mom had only just discovered this? I guess she had taken the silence over the comms as a good thing.

 

“Doesn’t matter. I got what we came for.” I lifted up the box as proof of our success. Mom strutted over and grabbed the box from me. She didn’t look too happy we had it.

 

“Yes, but you got shot! In the chest!”

 

“She took the bullet for me.” This seemed like something Dad wasn’t happy about, either. Not like I had a choice. Dad dies, Tommy dies. That would ruin my mission. Seriously, we had gotten the box. Why wasn’t anyone happy about that? I pulled Dad’s hand away from the wound, and took my undershirt off, leaving me in my sports bra. Dad immediately turned around before he could see anything.

 

“Someone who knows how is going to have to suture me up, and it can’t be me.” I glanced at Mom, who hadn’t turned around, but was avoiding making eye contact.

 

“Don’t look at me. I don’t do blood.” I kicked Dad’s back.

 

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m decent enough. It’s just a sparring outfit.” It was true; I had sparred in just a sports bra with pretty much everyone on the team. Dad turned back around and had a sharp intake of breath. “What?”

 

“You’re too young to have that many scars.” He seemed upset about that, too. 

 

“Yeah, well, it’s part of the business. Let’s just worry about this one, alright?” He nodded, and got his kit all set up. He offered me some pills, which I assumed were for the pain, but I pushed his hand away.

 

“How did you get all of those scars?” It wasn’t such an odd question, as the Mom I knew didn’t know how I had gotten some of my scars, either. I shrugged, and then immediately regretted the painful action.

 

“Life happens. I’ve been shot before, but I really can’t get too much into it. Too much knowledge about the-”

 

“Future. Yeah, I get it. Good to know there’s still a lot of people beating up vigilantes in the future.” She looked worriedly at Dad behind his back as he continued focusing on my wound. 

 

“The future isn’t all bad. It isn’t all good. It just...is.” I wasn’t much of a philosopher. Leave that to Frankie “My Mom Wins Pulitzers” Allen. I was more of a black-and-white, is-or-isn’t kind of girl. 

 

“You know, you could be a Traveller who makes a difference. Changes the past to make the future better.” Oh, if only I could. But I had a whole list of reasons why not, and many friends to explain that list. 

 

“It’s not that simple. And I’m not going to be the Traveller who messes with time.” I’d seen it happen, and that wouldn’t be my destiny.

 

“All done.” I looked at my Dad’s handiwork. Suturing is apparently something he needed a bit of time to get better at, but the rudimentary stitches and bandage would do for now. “You need to go get some rest.”

 

Everything in me wanted to disagree, except the stinging chest wound. I knew Dad was right. “Fine. But first thing in the morning, we’re getting to work.”

 

Dad, too, looked like he wanted to argue, but he must’ve seen that I wasn’t in an argumentative mood. “Fine.”

 

I retreated to my mattress, intent on getting some rest.


	24. Chapter 24

Rest seemed hard to come by. I tossed and turned, trying to find the best position. If I lay on my side, the pain was almost bearable, but sleep still wouldn’t come. I thought about my mom’s words, about changing the future for the better. That wasn’t my responsibility. I knew that. I thought back to when I first found out about my destiny.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------

 

I was getting restless. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I knew that sojourning into the Speed Force was a speedster rite of passage, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Since Don had disappeared from the breech room three days ago, I was nothing but a bundle of nerves. I paced around the Cortex. I ran laps around the Speed Lab. I even started playing with the equipment in the medical bay. Anything to keep my mind off of Don. 

 

When Frankie had gone into the Speed Force, I had been anxious. But she had patiently explained it to me, how her dad had done it several times and now she was feeling the call to do the same. Her parents seemed totally okay with it. So off she ran, away from me and into the unknown. Don and I took sleeping bags into the breach room and camped out. I did my home-schooling and helped Don with his fighting, normal speed. When Frankie came back, she was different. She stopped freaking out about whether her crushes liked her. She stopped being nervous about her driving test and went and got her license. She even stepped up her responsibilities in Team Flash, whereas before she was afraid to use her powers to fight. I asked her what had changed, and she just said “I understand my place now. I am Dawn Francine Allen, and I am a speedster.” 

 

With Don, it was different. I begged him not to go. He said it would be no different than Frankie going, and that’s what I was worried about. What if he went into the Speed Force and came back different? Too different for me, for us? I wouldn’t be able to handle that. Everything in my life had been better since I had come to see my best girl friend’s twin brother as a really cool guy instead of an annoyance. Being with him made everything better. I didn’t want the Speed Force to take that away from me. So when he ran into it, I couldn’t sit still. I didn’t want to have a prolonged sleepover with Frankie. I wanted to punch something. 

 

Team Flash saw my restless behavior and let me join the team after a couple of days. I updated some of their facial recognition software, and even went on a patrol with Frankie. But it wasn’t enough. It couldn’t keep my mind off of it. On the fourth day of what felt like an endless wait, Mr. Allen (it felt weird calling my friend and boyfriend’s dad by his first name) pulled me aside in the Speed Lab. 

 

“What are you so worried about? It wasn’t like this with Frankie.”

 

“I didn’t know what to expect with Frankie. I thought it was just like a normal trip, like to another Earth. But she came back different, more mature. What if Don comes back and decides….” I couldn’t bear to finish the thought.

 

“Decides he doesn’t want you anymore. I get it.” Mr. Allen sat down on his treadmill and gestured for me to do the same. “Look, I’m not going to lie to you. He will be different. But he’ll also be more himself than he’s ever been. And trust me, that’s only going to make him love you more.” 

 

He got a far-off look in his eye, and I assumed he was no longer talking about me and Don. He was talking about himself and Mrs. West-Allen. Apparently she was a big factor in getting him out of the Speed Force. I hoped I wouldn’t have to do that for Don-I wasn’t sure it would work, and wouldn’t want to be there if it failed. 

 

“I know my son. Don really cares about you, and the Speed Force isn’t going to change that. Trust me.” Mr. Allen offered a small smile, and it made me feel better. Mr. Allen knew the Speed Force better than anyone who ever lived. If he thought Don and I would be fine, then we would be. 

 

That night, I decided to hang out on the STAR Labs roof, where my nerves wouldn’t bother anyone. I was feeling calm enough to just sit down and watch the stars. I wasn’t going to pretend like I knew any of their names, but I knew the North Star and how to navigate from it, so I didn’t mind just making up names and shapes for the rest. I was just deciding that I saw an arrow in the sky when I felt a whoosh of air. I looked up, and there he was. He looked me in the eye and gave me the biggest smile.

 

I stood up and gave him a hug, getting lost in the feeling of his arms around me. It felt like he had been gone a whole lot longer than four days. He smelled just like him, like….lightning. 

 

“Hey.” It was lame, but it was the only thing that could come out of my tear-choked throat.

 

“Hey yourself.” He let go of our hug, pushing me at an arm’s length, keeping his hands on my shoulders. He looked me up and down. “I missed you.”

 

“I missed you, too.”

 

“How long was I gone?” With that question, I realized that I was the first person Don had come to talk to since leaving the Speed Force. Not his family, but me.

 

“It was four days, here.”

 

“That’s all? It feels like I’ve been gone for months.” Months? No wonder he looked at me like I was a completely different person. 

 

“Okay, I guess you win.” I liked making things a competition, and Don usually let me win. Now it was my chance to make him a winner. He chuckled at that, and then sat down, putting his right arm around me. I took his left hand between both of mine and started playing with his fingers. He let his right hand drifted through my hair. It was perfect. It was us.

 

He started telling me about the things he had seen in the Speed Force, and I pretended like I understood. But I laughed with him when he told me the ridiculous parts and cried with him when he told me the heart-wrenching parts. I told him about teaming up with his crew, and he told me he wished he were here to see it. 

 

“I saw you in there.”

 

“You did?”

 

“It wasn’t you, really, it was the Speed Force, but the Speed Force also has an understanding of you.”

 

“Frankie told me she saw me there, too. She said I have a destiny.”

 

“Yeah. I understand that now, too. It’s not for me to tell you, though. You have to find out for yourself.” I wish everything with the Speed Force wasn’t so cryptic and confusing. But Don had complete peace in his eyes when he told me.

 

“Is it a good destiny or a bad destiny?” Don’s face lit up.

 

“It’s the very best. Here.” He took his arm from around me and took something out of his pocket. A string? He grabbed my right wrist and tied it there. Oh, a bracelet. It was a leather string with a silver stone strung onto it. “Calcified Speed Force.”

 

“It’s beautiful. Thank you.” 

 

“This means you’re a Traveller now. No matter where you go, whether it’s another time or another Earth, you bring the protection of the Speed Force with you.”

 

“Wow. I don’t know what to say.” A rare occurrence.

 

“Just promise me you’ll use it to keep the timeline and the multiverse safe, and never to use it for your own benefit.”

 

“I promise.” I smiled at him. His smile began to fade and turn into something much more intense, something I hadn’t seen in him before. He looked me dead in the eye.

 

“I love you.” Oh. We’d never said that to each other before. My heart felt like it was about to burst.

 

“I love you, too.” I kissed him, trying to show him exactly how I felt. It worked.

 

\------------------------------------------------------

 

Since I had gotten my bracelet, I had gotten many a lecture from scientists and Legends and the greatest speedster alive about how to use it. I knew that they all, in their own way, had tried to change time for the better, and had it majorly backfire on them. Time was meant to be protected, not changed to fit one’s own desires, no matter how noble.

 

I knew I had a destiny. It had been prophesied by the Speed Force. With that thought, I fell into a deep sleep.


	25. Chapter 25

I got off the Ducati, and Dad followed me. We were back at the warehouse where Momentum had last been keeping Tommy hostage. We climbed up the side of the building, and I showed him the door that was still unlocked from the last time I was there. We snuck down onto the catwalks and saw that Momentum was still there. He was still moving about in that random pattern of his. 

 

“One of us is going to have to distract him while the other extracts the hostage,” I whispered. It would be ideal if I could confront Momentum, but I didn’t want Tommy seeing Dad and saying something he shouldn’t. 

 

“I’ll distract the speedster. You go get your brother.” And Dad volunteered for the more dangerous job, as I knew he would do. There was a ladder nearer to Tommy on the catwalk, so I snuck over there. While Momentum had his back to me, I began descending the ladder. I was able to see both Dad and Momentum from my position, so I had a clear vantage point to see Dad leaping off the catwalk and landing on Momentum. The speedster fell to the ground and began tussling with Dad. That gave me the cover I needed to go get Tommy. I jumped off the ladder and ran to where he was.

 

I knelt down and checked Tommy’s vitals. He had a pulse, and he was breathing. Good enough. I reached for my lock pick, and realized I didn’t have it. That slot in my suit was empty! I looked around in my immediate area and saw nothing of use. I felt a whoosh of air and turned to see the source. I watched Momentum speed up to my dad and break his neck.

 

I couldn’t scream. Not this time. 

 

I turned back toward Tommy, and it wasn’t him I saw. It was eleven fallen officers. We were back in the abandoned building in the Glades. Momentum turned toward me with a hungry look in his eye and said, “Looks like you lose sweetheart. Tell that to anyone else who dares come to fight me.”

 

\------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Anna, you have to wake up.” 

 

I woke up covered in sweat with Dad roughly shaking me. I was still on the mattress in the bunker, with the blanket completely kicked off of me.

 

“Sorry.” Dad shouldn’t have to see me like this. At least, not yet. Our bonding because of our nightmares was something that he wasn’t ready for. 

 

“You were calling for your dad.” 

 

“I was?”

 

“Yeah, over and over.”

 

“Sometimes I dream that people I love get hurt because of who I am...because of what I am. This time it was my dad.”

 

“And in real life it’s your brother.” He hit the nail on the head. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. “Anything you do to help get yourself back to sleep?”

 

“I don’t.” We sat there in silence for a few minutes. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”

 

“It’s okay. I’m a light sleeper. I’m just...I’m glad you woke up.” He got up and went back over to his mats. He seemed to sincerely mean it. For a second there, it was almost like...but I couldn’t let myself dwell on such thoughts. My dream had proven that to me.

 

In the morning when I finally woke up for real, Dad was gone. I figured now was a good time to get in some more training. I started with jumping jacks and burpees. Then I took out my bow and quiver and went for some target practice while on the move. Finally, it was salmon ladder time. There’s something almost soothing about the rhythmic practice of going up and down the bars. It was the same distance every time, it made the same clang every time, and it pulled on my arms the same way every time. I was still doing it when Mom came down the stairs.

 

“Oh, I thought you were Oliver! You scared me!” I hopped down off the bar.

 

“Sorry. Just getting in some early morning practice.”

 

“I thought I’d come by before work, make sure you were both fed, but I see Oliver isn’t here. Do you know where he went?”

 

“No idea. He wasn’t here when I woke up.”

 

“Strange. Anyway, I got breakfast!” She seemed so excited by something so normal, like feeding me, that it made me a little bit happy, too. She put a plastic grocery bag onto the table and I glanced inside. Some individual cereal containers, two cartons of milk, a banana, and an orange. My first real meal in a while. “I wasn’t sure what cereal you liked, so I grabbed a bunch.”

 

The first container I pulled out was shredded wheat, which was Dad’s favorite, so I set it to one side along with a milk. The next was a sugary chocolate cereal, which Tommy would’ve loved, and I left that in the bag. Finally, there were some Cheerios, my favorite. 

 

“Cheerios? Those are my favorite, too! Especially with….” I grabbed a milk and a banana. “Banana slices.”

 

I had to say something about the coincidence. “I prefer mine with strawberries, but I guess bananas are good, too.” And now I had insulted my mom’s choice of fruits. Whatever. Dad came down the stairs at that moment, sparing me any more awkwardness.

 

“Oh, great, you brought breakfast!” Dad walked right up to Mom, and she smiled her smile for him. This was the Mom and Dad I was used to. None of this Dr. Palmer-and-gloom nonsense. 

 

“Yes, and Anna passed on the shredded wheat, so I guess the disgusting little squares are yours now.” 

 

“Thanks for putting them out for me.”

 

“That was Anna.” Dad glanced at me, with that unreadable expression on his face. He shook it off when Mom asked him a question.

 

“Where were you this morning?”

 

“Went on a run, to clear my head.” Hopefully this had nothing to do with my nightmare from the night before. Probably not, since vigilantes needed a lot of runs to clear their heads. He dug into the bag. “No spoons?”

 

Mom immediately frowned. “Frack, I must’ve forgotten. Sorry.”

 

“No big deal, I’ll eat it dry.” Dad smiled at Mom, and she smiled back. It was worth seeing it, even if it meant I had to drink my now milk-drenched cereal. “Anyway, what’s our next step in the plan?”

 

He turned to me, and his eyebrows creased at seeing me drinking Cheerios out of the container, so I put them right back down. “The next component we need is the hardware from Palmer Tech. I was thinking that maybe if we asked nicely, Dr. Palmer would give it to us?” 

 

Mom’s face lit up. “Yeah, probably. Just show me what we need and I’ll talk to Ray about borrowing it for a project or something. He won’t mind.”

 

“Wait, you’re going to see Palmer today?” Why was my Dad so upset? I mean, yes, they were dating and that made him understandably upset, but why wouldn’t she see her boss today? “It’s Saturday. You’re not going to work.”

 

“No, but Ray and I were going to be together….socially. Just together. Just great. Just fine and dandy.” This was going off the rails far too quickly. I had to jump in.

 

“If you’re going to see Dr. Palmer, that’s all the better. I’ll go check in on the inventor and get the power source.” Dad seemed willing to go with any plan that avoided him and Dr. Palmer together.

 

“Great. I’ll go with you.” I couldn’t have Dad meeting Curtis now. They didn’t meet for another whole year! 

 

“No, you stay here and analyze the serum. We might have to modify it for our needs.” 

 

“I don’t know...how to do that.” Dad had an uncomfortable grimace. What? He knew how to use a spectrometer. Or at least he would eventually be taught how to use one, I guess. 

 

“Alright. Well, I’ll show you,” I pointed at my mom, “what we need from Palmer Tech while I get started on the chemical analysis here.”

 

Mom nodded and came over to the computers. I pulled up the specs on what I needed.

 

“You need a microchip?”

 

“Yes. This specific one. There’s a compartment for holding the serum and a place for the power source.”

 

“Whatever you need. I’ll go get it.” Mom went back up the stairs. I turned to look for the spectrometer. Should’ve asked Mom where she kept everything before she left. Things were organized slightly differently here than at my bunker.

 

“Do you know where you keep your spectrometer?”

 

Dad put his hands up in a surrender gesture. “I don’t know what that is.”

 

“Right.” I dug around through some of the larger drawers until I found it. I set it up on the table and gave Dad the end of the cord. At least he would know where to plug that in. Once the spectrometer was up and running, I got the settings I wanted and plugged it into the computer. I finally dug around and found some pipettes, and we were ready to go.

 

“Okay, so basically, this thing can analyze the chemical a bunch of different ways, using these buttons.” I pointed to the various function buttons on the display. “Don’t worry too much about what they do. I’m going to show you how to load the chemical and run a function. Then you’ll save the output, discard of the old sample and load a new one. Make sense?”

 

Dad nodded. I showed him everything he’d need to do. “Now just do that a bunch more times with each function. Don’t worry about running out; we’ll only need a little bit of the original remaining. Just don’t spill. That would be bad.”

 

“Got it. Load, press the button, wait, save, unload. Don’t spill.”

 

“Good. Now I’ve got a couple more things I need to do.” I needed to find Curtis. The fact that it was Saturday meant he was probably at home, doing whatever soon-to-be-vigilantes did on their days off. Just in case, I pinged his phone. Nope, he was at Palmer Tech, probably working on the battery. I would have to get back into Palmer Tech. I had an idea.

 

“Hey, do you think you could pretend to be my high school newspaper editor?”

 

“What?”

 

“Just on the phone for a second. I need you to call this guy and tell him that I accidentally lost the recording of our interview and that I need to go back and interview him again. And that you’re really sorry to be wasting his time on a Saturday, but we’re on a deadline?”

 

“Sure?”

 

I called up Curtis. He answered on the fifth ring. “Hello, Curtis Holt?” Now that he had said his name, I put the phone on speaker and handed it off to Dad.

 

“Just introduce yourself,” I whispered.

 

“Hello, this is...Dan… Green.” Convincing. “A student in my newspaper class lost the recording of your interview and she needs to go back and interview you again.”

 

“Oh, the blonde high school girl? I knew she didn’t have a photographic memory.”

 

“Yes, her. I’m really sorry to be wasting your time on a Saturday, but we’re on a deadline here, so…”

 

“Yeah, she can come in. Tell her I’ll put her down on the visitor’s list. When should I expect her?”

 

“In half an hour.”

 

“Great. Thanks for the call.” I grabbed a couple more things from the bunker, and then I was off to visit Curtis Holt again.


	26. Chapter 26

I got up to Curtis’ office and knocked on the door. Curtis answered with a happier expression on his face than the last time I had seen him. 

 

“I knew you didn’t have total recall!” He was happy to be have been proven right? That was the only reason he had let me back up? Well, if it had gotten me here, then so be it.

 

“Actually, I came back here because I thought of another direction for our interview.” I strode past Curtis and took a seat at his desk. “I wanted you to take a look at these blueprints.”

 

Curtis seemed a bit distracted that I had just taken over his workspace, then fascinated by my tablet. I had unfolded it in front of him, and, much like Mom, he was overwhelmed.

 

“Did you just...unfold a fully functioning computer like it was oragami?” I wasn’t really in the mood to explain anything to him.

 

“Cool, right? Anyway, what can you make of these blueprints?” 

 

Curtis looked over Dr. Palmer’s future blueprints for a shrink-ray. “It looks like...a laser. But one with a highly specific function….has to be theoretical...a...minimization laser?” 

 

The name was way less cool, but at least Curtis understood the thrust of the project. With Dr. Palmer, I understood that I needed to appeal to his innate sense of goodness. With Curtis, I needed less to appeal to his optimism and more to his self-esteem. In other words, flattery should get me everywhere.

 

“Where did you get the blueprints for something like this?”

 

“It’s a science project I’m working on. My teacher doesn’t think it will work and I want to prove him wrong in time for the science fair.” I had never done anything as normal as a science fair in my life, but I’m sure high school students nation-wide did them all the time. “Do you think you’d have the materials to build such a thing here?”

 

“Yes? But this is all theoretical. The best we could do would be to build a model and show the principles of it. Building it would be absurd.” A model? I needed the shrink ray to actually work for it to be of any use. But if we started by building a model, I could sneak in active components while he wasn’t paying attention. 

 

“Absurd? But you’re really smart, right? The way you were talking about future tech the other day sure made it seem like it…I thought you could be the one to help me?”

 

“I can try.” He looked over the blueprints in more depth. “We should have everything either in my lab or somewhere in the division.”

 

“Great! Let’s get started!” And I hadn’t even had to resort to Plan B yet.

 

\--------------------------------------------

 

Three hours later, and Curtis seemed too wrapped up in the sheer joy of building the laser that he didn’t even realize we had passed theoretical about ninety minutes ago. We weren’t building a model anymore-we were building future tech. Sure, the tech would exist in a couple of months in Dr. Palmer’s ATOM suit, but it was revolutionary to Curtis. 

 

“Could you hand me those needle-nose pliers?” I handed the instrument over to Curtis while his attention was solely on the laser. He tweaked the last few wires into place, and closed the casing. “That should do it. Your model is all set. You’ll blow those other teenagers away. I mean, not literally, but it should still be cool.”

 

The shrink ray certainly looked good. I knew I had added the correct elements to make it as dangerous as it needed to be. Certainly not something I could take to an average high school. There was only one way to know if it worked, and that was the most difficult part of my plan. 

 

“Actually, while we were working over here,” and I gestured at the back workbench of the workshop, “I was wondering if you could show me what this was.” I pointed to the rudimentary T-sphere I saw there. 

 

“Oh, that?” Curtis got up and walked over to the bench, leaving his back turned to me. He started explaining, but I ignored him. I grabbed the shrink ray, pointed it at Curtis’ battery and shot it. It shrunk; I grabbed it and pocketed it. “...and can hold an explosive charge.” 

 

“Oh, how interesting. Wow. You really have a lot going on down here. I’ll have to make sure I personally write a letter to Ray Palmer expressing how grateful I am for your help.”

 

“Well, thank you. You’re quite a prodigy yourself. One day it could be you working here.” As if this company weren’t set to implode in just a few years’ time.

 

“One day. Thank you for everything. Good-bye.” I got out of there before Curtis could wonder where his battery was. I hurried toward the elevators and down into the lobby. I was out of there before any questions were asked.

 

I got back down to the bunker, hoping Dad had finished the spectroanalysis. Instead, I found him searching through drawers, clearly unable to find what he was looking for. 

 

“How’s the spectroanalysis coming?”

 

“It’s fine,” he said distractedly, still searching. Then he turned to me and pointed a finger, accusingly. “You took my gun.”

 

Busted.

 

“I might have...borrowed it.” I took it out of my boot and put it in his outstretched hand. He opened the chamber and glanced at the bullets.

 

“You didn’t fire it.” It was a statement, not a question. “Why did you take it?”

 

This was the answer I was ashamed of. I said nothing. He glared at me and said, “Did you think you were going to threaten the guy? A civilian? Force him to give you what you were looking for at gunpoint?” 

 

I maintained my silence. He came up even closer to me and his voice got louder. “Did you think this was going to get you what you wanted?” More silence. “Is violence the only way you know how to solve things? With the speedster, at the cage match, even when talking things out with me. Why?”

 

“Because I need to do whatever it takes to save my brother!” I yelled back at him.  _ Because it’s what you would want me to do _ . We both took a beat to calm down, staring at each other the whole time. I didn’t know what he wanted me to say. But I knew what he had wanted me to do, and if it had come to threatening Curtis, I would have. 

 

My mom’s voice pierced the heavy tension in the room. “I got it! I got the chip!” She came clacking down the stairs in her heels, and immediately sensed the mood in the room. “Oh. And what’s going on here?”

 

Without breaking eye contact with me, Dad responded. “We were just having a little chat about firearms safety.”

 

My mom clearly wanted nothing to do with that conversation. “Alright, then I’ll just be-”

 

“No, it’s fine. Stay. I need to look at the chemical workup anyway.” I went over to the spectrometer and saw that Dad had uploaded the analyses correctly. I tried to get my mind to focus on the data, but it kept wandering back to the time I had learned exactly how Dad wanted me to act when it came to my brother.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------

 

It was a Friday night. I was twelve, so Tommy was five. The plan for the evening was the same as always: that the two of us would stay in the bunker where I could study, work on self-defense, and watch Tommy. But for some reason, I didn’t want to that night. Maybe it was there was a movie I wanted to watch on TV or I was just tired of the fact that I was the only kid my age who had never stayed home alone. Maybe I was just sick of having constant babysitters, who were usually just team members who wanted a night off. Whatever the reason was, I wanted to stay home that night. After much pleading, Mom and Dad finally gave in, on one condition: that I would watch Tommy. Mom couldn’t run comms and keep him preoccupied in the bunker. I agreed.

 

Before he left for the night, Dad went over the instructions over and over again. He wrote down the phone number of practically every person he knew in case of an emergency and made me recite the locations of every EpiPen and fire extinguisher in the house. After promising I wouldn’t answer the door or invite anyone over, Mom and Dad finally left.

 

Even though Tommy was there, I felt a kind of freedom. I could eat ice cream out of the carton and sit on the table while doing it. I could have the TV on as loud as I wanted and play video games all night. There were no rational rules to what I could and couldn’t do. Eventually, I ended up eating what Dad had left in the fridge for me and settling down to watch Disney Channel and fool with my tablet while Tommy played with his cars in the living room. 

 

I heard a sound coming from the front hallway, but I ignored it. I figured it was just the house creaking or something. Tommy kept playing, and I returned to the program I was writing. Then I heard it again. I turned around to where I had heard the noise, and I saw a ninja standing in the kitchen. Maybe he was a ninja, maybe a samurai, maybe a League assassin, I wasn’t clear. I pulled out my phone, but he threw a knife at it, breaking it as I held it in my hand. I immediately dropped it.

 

I lept over the couch and tried taking him on. He quickly had me down on my knees, holding a sword to my neck. “Where is the man called Oliver Queen?” I was too scared to speak. “Where is he?!?”

 

“I don’t know...he’s...I don’t know.” 

 

“If you don’t know, then maybe this one will.” He walked over to Tommy, who still sat playing with his cars. Maybe he was just too desensitized to masked men coming around to our house, or to me fighting them for practice. The masked man walked right up to Tommy, pointed a sword at him, and growled, “Where is Oliver Queen?”

 

Tommy looked up and sweetly said, “My daddy’s at work.”

 

The ninja braced the sword harder against Tommy’s neck, drawing blood. We both screamed. Tommy tried batting the sword away with his hand, but ended up cutting himself on the sharp edge, screaming louder. He was full-on crying at this point. I didn’t know what to do. Then my father’s voice came into my head:  _ Now, as his big sister, it’s going to be your job to protect him.  _ I was Tommy’s protector. I had been my entire life, since my vigilante parents rarely had the time, and it wasn’t going to stop now. 

 

“Get away from him,” I mumbled.

 

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

 

“Get away from him,” I was able to say in a normal voice. 

 

“Or you’ll what? Scream at me some more?”

 

“No.” And I picked up my phone, dug the knife out of it, and threw it. If there was one thing my father had taught me above all else, it was how to aim and launch a projectile. Mom had considered it much safer than hand-to-hand combat, and so she allowed me to be trained in it. Dad and I spent hours with arrows and knives. I knew my aim was true, even if I lacked force. 

 

The knife landed itself in the intruder’s chest. He fell to one knee, holding his chest. He ripped the knife out. “I’ll be back,” he threatened, before jumping out the window, completely breaking it in the process, and running out into the night.

 

“Tommy?” I ran up to my brother, checking his cut and holding him to me tightly. “Tommy, shhhh, it’s alright.” 

 

His blood was getting on my shirt, but I didn’t care. I knew the cut wasn’t deep. As soon as Tommy stopped crying and got his breathing back, I reached for my tablet and called Mom. Once that was done, I dragged Tommy to the nearest First Aid kit and started to patch him up. Within minutes, Mom was rushing into the house. Mom screamed when she saw Tommy, seeing the blood dripping onto his shoulder. Dad arrived just after she finished patching up Tommy. He just stood and stared. He was still in his gear. It was like he literally couldn’t process everything that was happening in front of him. Then, his face contorted into a rage.

 

“What happened here?”

 

“We were attacked by...by this ninja. He wanted you, Dad. He...he attacked Tommy and cut him with a sword and…”

 

“How could you let this happen?” What? I just wanted my dad to hug me but this? “You promised me you would be responsible. You promised me you would keep him safe.”

 

“I did. Dad, I threw a knife at him and-”

 

“He should never have been hurt in the first place!”

 

“I didn’t mean for that to happen, I-”

 

“Tommy’s not like you! He can’t take care of himself. He needed you to take care of him tonight, and you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t protect him.”

 

I couldn’t even cry. That would’ve been too easy. I had done everything I could to take care of Tommy, but it wasn’t enough in his eyes. I promised myself then that I needed to train harder, run faster, be stronger, and that the next time, I would protect Tommy.

 

The next month, Mom told us she was sick. Dad already knew. He had known, I’d later learn, since that fateful night. With Mom sick, it became easier to train without her rules. Dig taught me how to shoot a gun at the range. Curtis taught me all the uses of explosives. Dad taught me hand-to-hand combat beyond simple self defense. And it wasn’t just the new lack of rules that made Dad do it-I reminded him that I needed to be strong. He seemed to understand that. Mom wasn’t sick anymore when I was ready to hit the streets, but by then, Dad seemed to see that he didn’t have a choice. The team was down a member, and I was ready to fight. He resigned himself to that fact and I became Maverick, protector of Star City. 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I was back to staring at the spectroanalysis. I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. The chemical markers all appeared to be in the right places. Its evaporation point wasn’t too high, meaning it would remain liquid when injected into a human spine. Everything about it suggested it would be safe to put in a human body. 

 

I smelled chicken as I saw my mom appear in my peripheral vision. She held out a box of take-out. “Ray and I ordered Chinese; I thought I’d bring over the extra.” I eagerly grabbed the box as well as the set of chopsticks she gave me.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“How’s the analysis coming?”

 

“Good. I think this will work for what we’re going to need. I shouldn’t even have to modify it.”

 

“That’s good.” She hesitated. “Are you and Oliver okay? It seemed like that was a pretty big fight.”

 

“It’s fine. He just doesn’t understand the sacrifices I’m willing to make for my brother.”

 

“I’m sure he does. He would do anything to save his sister. I reminded him of that. I think he’s going to be a bit more understanding going forward.”

 

“You didn’t have to talk to him.”

 

“I know. But I did.” Mom let one hand rest of my shoulder before walking away and letting me finish my analysis. I watched her walk away and thought about the stories of how Mom and Dad had met. They loved telling those stories to us. I knew he would bring ridiculous problems to her to solve, and have even more ridiculous excuses as to why. And she always did what he asked. Would my dad have brought a gun to those exchanges and threatened her if he hadn’t gotten his way like I would have with Curtis?  _ Of course not. He’d find another way.  _ So why hadn’t I?

 

Once I was confident that Cisco’s chemical was perfect for my needs (although I was equally confident it wouldn’t cure cancer), I grabbed the miniaturized battery out of my pocket. With tweezers, I was able to fit it into the microchip and connect it. Then I pipetted a drop of the cellular regenerator into the holding cell of the microchip. It all fit together perfectly. This is what Curtis must’ve been able to do a year from now. All that was left to do was to code it.

 

Just as I was about to start that process, Roy, Laurel, and Dig came into the bunker. 

 

“So what are we up to tonight? Drug dealers? Cage fights? Mob bosses?” Roy seemed eager to beat someone up.

 

“Actually, just a basic patrol,” Dad said. “I’m pretty sure the streets will be quiet tonight.”

 

“Anna, are you coming with us?” Laurel asked. I disliked that there was already precedent for me coming along on missions. “We could always use an extra set of eyes out there.”

 

“Anna has her own project to work on tonight,” my dad said neutrally. “We’ll do just fine on our own.”

 

“What are you working on, mini-Felicity?” Roy asked, coming up to me. Mini-Felicity? 

 

“Don’t call me that. I just need to code this microchip. Doubt you’ll be able to help me, so I’m good here.” 

 

“Got it. I’ll back off.” Roy went to join the rest of his teammates in suiting up. Mom went and got settled at another bank of computers as I plugged in the microchip and my tablet. There were bits and pieces of code I had lying around on my tablet that I might be able to repurpose for my project. I could only hope.

 

After the team left, Mom and I worked in comfortable silence. We were both typing away, and she would occasionally say something over the comms like “Arsenal, watch your six!” or “The code is 314.” It was just like doing my home-schooling down in the bunker while she was being Overwatch; the sounds were like background noise to me. 

 

As for the coding, it was proving to be rather difficult. I don’t know how Curtis had done it. He must’ve had help somehow. I was self-taught in chemistry and biology at the college level, but I felt like I needed a PhD in computer science and physiology in order to hack this. The pieces of code I had on my tablet were only getting me so far. I was still working when the team came back from patrol. They said their good-byes, each being careful to avoid me. I mustn’t have looked to be in a chatty mood. Finally, it was just Mom and Dad left in the bunker. Dad came up to me.

 

“I’m sorry.” My dad, apologizing? That was rare no matter the time period. “I shouldn’t have questioned your motives or intent. And I get wanting your brother to be safe, I do. I’d do anything for Thea.” 

 

“The things you accused me of...you weren’t all wrong. Sometimes, violence is the only way I know how to do things. I don’t always think through other options.”

 

“That’s not true. Look at you now-you were able to use your smarts to get through to that inventor and you’re using them now to do...whatever it is you’re doing.”

 

“Then how is it that all I want to do right now is abandon this project and go kill that speedster?”

 

“Because you’re only human. But your desire for revenge is overpowered by your desire to do the right thing.”

 

“And how do you know that?” He paused to consider my question.

 

“I know you.” Before I could respond, he walked away. I turned and saw that Mom had already gone home for the night. Dad started training again, leaving me in peace to finish the code.


	27. Chapter 27

This biostimulant code was kicking my butt. Taking his meta-physiology into account was killer. Maybe I was about halfway done, but I really couldn’t say. It wouldn’t be so bad if I just closed my eyes for a second, right? Just lay down my head and…..I was gone.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------

 

I got off the bus at my stop, the only one from the middle school bus today. I started walking home when I felt a gust of wind. Suddenly, Frankie was walking beside me like she had been there the whole time. I wasn’t fazed. This was what it was like when one of your best friends was the fastest girl alive.

 

“You really shouldn’t be doing that out in the open.”

 

“I know. But it’s so much more fun trying to surprise you than speeding out into an open field and then walking here.”

 

“Ha. If you ever do surprise me, I’ll let you know. What are you doing here, anyway?”

 

“I was hoping you’d help me with my biology homework.”

 

“Can’t your dad help you? That’s kind of his thing?”

 

“Nope. There’s a Rogue on the loose so he’s occupied.” She batted her eyelashes at me in her cutesie way and I laughed. 

 

“Okay, I’ll help you.”

 

“Science sucks. I can’t wait for college, where I can just take all writing classes.”

 

“You know you still have to do high school, too, right? Four more years of science?”

 

“Ughhh. Don’t remind me. It doesn’t help that you and Don are little science geniuses.”

 

“Yeah. You think I could just home-school myself instead of high school?”

 

“If anyone could do it, it’s you. But you think your dad will let you?”

 

“He’s so preoccupied with Mom that he’ll sign anything I put in front of him. I had him sign me out of class for two days to go to my grandma’s funeral.”

 

“You haven’t had a grandma die in like twenty years.”

 

“Exactly. I spent the time training in the bunker instead. Told the team it was teacher work days.”

 

“Wait? You had two days off and you didn’t come visit me?”

 

“Sorry, but it’s a little harder for me to get to Central than for you to get here.”

 

“Ah, yes, not all of us were blessed with these amazing good looks,” here she flipped her hair, “and speedster genes.”

 

“And not all of us were lucky enough to get struck by lightning.”

 

“And...” Here Frankie quickly shut her mouth and looked away. I knew a secret when I saw one.

 

“And what?”

 

“Nothing, I didn’t say anything.”

 

“You were about to say something. Is there another way to become a speedster?” 

 

Frankie looked like she was about to burst. Finally, she spilled. “Okay, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Wells accidentally told me. Basically, there used to be a drug you could use, but everybody who ever took it went crazy and died.” Frankie shrugged.

 

A speedster drug? That didn’t seem possible. If it were, we’d have a bunch more speedsters in the world. But, like Frankie said, it killed everyone who took it. 

 

“Anyway, do you have anymore of those cookies at your place?” Since Mom had gotten sick, William would come by occasionally and make us sweets. I think he was unsure what you do when your step-mom gets sick but you already moved out years ago. 

 

“No, William hasn’t been by this week.”

 

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Frankie seemed really disappointed. Like, too disappointed.

 

“Are you disappointed about my brother’s cookies...or about my brother?”

 

“Ummmm...gotta go!” And Frankie ran off at a normal human pace, and I took off to catch her. 

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I woke with a start. I hadn’t thought about that day in a long time. Thinking back about it now, I smiled. Frankie and I had some good memories together, especially after she got over her crush on my much-older brother. But another thing about that day stood out: learning about the speedster drug. It wasn’t something I had ever thought of again. By Frankie’s account, it sounded like the drug didn’t exist anymore. But what if it did? What if there was a drug that made people speedsters, and someone had gotten their hands on it? Someone who had gone crazy, and knew they were about to die? Someone like Momentum?


	28. Chapter 28

If Momentum was a human, that meant I was programming the biostimulant all wrong. I started re-coding the parts specific to metas, as pieces started to fit together in my head. Why Momentum had “allowed” me to catch up to him, how sometimes he didn’t use his speed in our fights, even how messed up his psychology was. He was only taking the drug in spurts at a time, meaning he didn’t always have speed. Why he didn’t take it in larger doses, I didn’t know. I also didn’t know where he could’ve gotten the drug, but I could understand why he wanted to use it. If it helped me save Tommy or stop Momentum, I’d use the drug.

 

After a few hours more coding, Dad came up to me. “Still working on that?”

 

I didn’t even look up at him. “I’m not going to stop working until I’m finished. You should just get some sleep.”

 

“I did. And then I woke up.” I glanced at the time on the monitor. 7 AM. I hadn’t even registered when my dad had stopped training. Time tends to pass differently in a windowless subterranean bunker. 

 

“Oh. Well, I’m almost done. I think.”

 

“We could call in Felicity, see if she could help you. Two heads are better than one.”

 

“No. Her seeing even one line of this code is dangerous. Even the program I’m using is from the future.”

 

“You look exhausted. Just take a few hours of rest.”

 

“I can’t. Momentum could come for this at any time today. I need it to be ready as soon as possible.”

 

Dad sighed. “You’ve been working non-stop all night and-”

 

“And my brother’s been kidnapped non-stop all night, so I’m not sure what your point is,” I snapped back at him. He put his hands up and walked away. Maybe I was acting like a jerk, but I was a jerk on a mission. 

 

A few minutes later, Dad came back. “At least take two seconds to have something to eat.”

 

“I’m not-”

 

“Two. Seconds.” I turned to face him and saw he was holding out a cup of instant oatmeal. He smiled. “We even have spoons this time.”

 

I grabbed a cup from him and tried scarfing it down, but it was too hot. Dad sat down and started to eat with me, in small bites. 

 

“Why are you doing this? Why didn’t you just call the police in the first place?”

 

“I’m a vigilante dealing with time travel. You think the police would be any help?”

 

“Okay, then, your parents?”

 

“If I do this right, I’ll bring him back before my parents know he was ever missing. Perks of time travel.” 

 

“You don’t think your parents would care that your brother went missing?”

 

“Oh, they’d care. They’d care too much.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“My dad would put all the blame on me. He always does. And my mom...we try not to put too much stress on her. It’s for the best.”

 

Dad looked in pain.“You really think your dad would know you went through all this effort and still...blame you? You’re doing more than it would seem possible to keep your brother safe.”

 

I let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, well, he’s not one to dole out praise for the amount of effort they put in. He’s a results-oriented guy. And if Momentum hurts one hair on my brother’s head...yeah, best to not let him know.” I held out my empty oatmeal cup to Dad without making eye contact, and turned back around to finish my work.

 

“For what it’s worth I think...I think you’re doing amazing.” I didn’t turn around to acknowledge the compliment, and I ignored the warmth spreading throughout my whole body. Only the task at hand mattered. 

 

\------------------------------------------------

 

“I got it!” I couldn’t believe it. But it seemed like the biostimulant was fully operational with my code. It should be able to work on any old human now.

 

Dad came rushing up to me. “You did?” I held up the microchip in response, and he looked at it with pride on his face.

 

“All I have to do now is deliver it to the speedster and trade it for my brother.”

 

“You mean all we have to do.”

 

“You’re not coming with-”

 

“Yes, I am. Look, I get you not wanting to risk the others for the sake of the timeline, but I understand the risk and I’m willing to take it. I want to be there when it all goes down.” 

 

I didn’t really have time to argue. I needed to be ready in case Momentum showed up at any moment. “Alright. Then suit up.”


	29. Chapter 29

I put on my suit hesitantly. If my biostimulant didn’t work, this would be the last thing I ever wore. It was fitting, representative of the lifestyle that had caused my family and me so much pain. I counted my arrows, though I already knew very well how many I had. I tucked my tablet safely into its compartment, checked that my lock-picking device was in place, and carefully put the biostimulant in my pocket. Finally, I adjusted my mask and flipped up my hood. I turned to check on my dad. He was suited up.

 

“Ready?” I asked.

 

“Ready,” he responded.

 

We got on the Ducati, and I directed him to the warehouse where I had last found Momentum. I didn’t know if he’d be there now, but it would be one of the places he would go to look for me. There was no use trying to sneak up on him. I led Dad into the warehouse through an open garage door. 

 

“Momentum, we’re here! We have what you want! We’re ready to make the trade!” I wasn’t sure Momentum would be here, but it would probably only be a matter of seconds until he was. Dad had an arrow already nocked and he was slowly swiveling to get all angles of the place. Suddenly, there was a rush of air. Momentum appeared in front of us.

 

“My, my, I see you brought a friend. No matter. Just as long as he knows he isn’t my true rival.”

 

“He knows. Now take me to my brother!”

 

“As you wish.” We were sped off and landed in a different building. I quickly took stock of my surroundings while Dad put his hands on his knees and caught his breath. He wasn’t used to speedster-travel yet. We were in a meat processing plant, but Tommy was nowhere to be found.

 

“Where’s my brother?”

 

“Patience, Queenie.” I glanced over at my dad, but it didn’t seem like he had any reaction to the comment. “The biostimulant first.”

 

“No. I want a sign that my brother is unharmed. That was our deal.”

 

“Now, now, sweetheart, you’re not exactly one in the position to be making demands here. I could kill you all before you blink and still get what I want. The biostimulant, please.”

 

He was right. If he was on the speedster drug right now, there was nothing I could do to stop him. I couldn’t help myself. I glanced over at Dad, who seemed to have regained his composure. He gave me the slightest nod. I took out the biostimulant and held it up. He snatched it away from me immediately. He held up the biostimulant and examined it from every angle. 

 

“You did well. You might have actually done this right. Now, to make sure there are no tricks…” Another gust of air, and we were someplace else. “...I’m going to keep you right here until I’m done testing it.”

 

He sped away, a door slammed, and we were in darkness. I had reached for my tablet (no signal) and turned on its flashlight. It did quite a bit to light up the small room. There were shelves along the sides of the room, full of meat. The room didn’t go back very far. I turned the flashlight toward the door and checked for a lock. There wasn’t one. It was just a solid metal door. I pushed on it, but it wouldn’t give. I shivered. That’s when I realized where we were-a meat freezer. 

 

“There’s no way out,” I told Dad, who was slowly regaining his balance again. “We’re trapped.”

 

“Back up.” I took a few paces back, and Dad nocked another arrow in his quiver. He took aim at the door but then an image came to me. When we had first landed, I had seen C4 in the doorway.

 

“No! He’s lined the doorway with explosives. You blow the door, you blow us up.” 

 

Dad unnocked the arrow and put it back in the quiver. “Then I guess there’s nothing to do but sit back and wait for him to come get us.” And Dad did just that. But something he said sparked some curiosity in me.

 

“What did you just say?”

 

“We’ll have to sit back and wait.” Sit. Triple crap.

 

I collapsed on the ground, leaning back against the freezer wall opposite Dad. “No no no no no no no” I muttered to myself, head in my hands.

 

“Anna, what is it?”

 

“Sit. Sitting. I didn’t take into consideration that the person with the biostimulant implanted would be fluctuating between sitting and standing positions. I designed it for someone sitting, a paralyzed person. But if they were to stand up….their vertebrae would crush it. The biostimulant is a failure.”

 

I knew what that meant. Momentum would kill Tommy and leave Dad to freeze to death, effectively killing Tommy again, erasing him from existence. And there was nothing I could do about it.

 

It was getting cold. And not a pleasant winter day where you curl up in a blanket and drink hot chocolate kind of cold, but a stuck in a blizzard in the Arctic cold. I tried not to shiver, but it became inevitable. Dad lowered his hood and took down his mask.

 

“It’s going to be okay. Maybe he won’t notice the problem, or maybe he won’t...maybe he won’t hurt your brother. And we’ll find a way out of here.” 

 

I didn’t respond. There was nothing I could say to make this okay. I knew he was only talking to make me feel better, but it wasn’t working. I knew I was dead. Somehow, I was okay with it. Maybe I had known ever since following Momentum through that time portal that this couldn’t end well, maybe I had known when the Speed Force prophesized that I had a destiny. Whatever the reason, I wasn’t scared of death. I was more scared of Tommy dying. But the thing I was most afraid of was the two of us never existing at all.  I knew it happened sometimes; Don had told me stories. But what I didn’t know was what happened to us. Was there an afterlife for people who never existed? Pain and suffering and death were all fine with me. But erasure wasn’t. 

 

“Hey, Anna?” I hadn’t realized Dad had been trying to get my attention. He scooted so he was right in front of me. “I promise you, I will save us.” 

 

I looked up at him. “And how do you know that?”

 

“Because I know.” Dad slowly lowered my hood and took down my mask. He looked at me. “I know you’re my daughter.”


	30. Chapter 30

“What are you talking about?” There was no way he could know, was there? I thought I had been pretty inconspicuous. 

 

Dad laughed humorlessly. “Come on, Anna. I may be dense but I’m not that dense.” I didn’t say anything in response. 

 

“Your fighting style is exactly like mine. And even though you say that’s because I trained you, you know moves I learned in Russia that I would never teach anyone. You knew I’d been to Hong Kong, a fact I’ve only ever told one other person. But it’s also the little things. You pile your eggs with way too much salsa, which is something only I do and you know my favorite cereal. You’re from years in the future, not months, and you refuse to talk about it, even benign details. You’re stubborn to a fault and are unwilling to let anyone help you. That necklace you wear-I made that for John’s baby, in case it was a girl. I wouldn’t give it to just anyone. And when you took,” here he placed his hand over my bullet wound, pausing to compose himself, “when you took that bullet for me it felt like I’d still been shot. I’ve never felt like that before. You’re my daughter.” 

 

Maybe it was because I hadn’t slept for 24 hours straight. Maybe it was because I was currently freezing to death. Maybe it was because I was absolutely sure I was going to die. But I knew there was no denying it anymore, and I didn’t want to. For the first time since stepping through that time portal, I cried. Big, loud, ugly sobs. I leaned forward and hugged my dad.

 

“Dad, I’m so sorry.” I wrapped my arms around him and held onto him tight. It took a second, but he was finally hugging me back. We sat like that for I don’t know how long, with him trying to sooth me. It felt so good, and I didn’t know the last time I had had someone comfort me. 

 

“Shhhh, Anna, it’s okay.” Finally, my sobbing decreased. I pulled back so I could look Dad in the eye again.

 

“That’s...that’s not my name.” Since we were going to die, I wanted him to know. “My name is Ryder. Ryder Laurel Queen.”

 

Something unreadable passed across my dad’s face, but then he smiled. “Alright, Ryder.”

 

“Dad, I’m so sorry. I failed you. I let him get hurt and I can’t fix this. I don’t know how to fix this.”

 

“Why would you think you have to apologize? You have nothing to be sorry for. I have watched you do everything humanly possible to save your brother. I am so proud of you.” And he smiled at me again. I wished this version of Oliver Queen was my father. I really did. Because it felt so good to hear him saying these things. But this version of Oliver Queen didn’t know what it was like to have Tommy for a son. He couldn’t know. He hadn’t assigned me to protect Tommy with my life. “I do have a question, though.”

 

“What?”

 

“Is your brother...is he my son, too?”

 

I smiled. “Yeah. He’s your son.”

 

“What’s his name?”

 

“Tommy.”

 

Dad’s face broke. Tears started leaking out of his eyes. “Really?”

 

“Yeah. Here, let me show you something.”

 

I grabbed my tablet and brought up the photos. I pulled up my favorite. Tommy had been insisting for weeks that we go to this magic show that all the kids at school were talking about. Finally, Mom and Dad gave in and got us all tickets. William happened to be in town that week, so he tagged along. Tommy was so happy, and the rest of us were just happy he was. Mom had someone take our picture. Dad was sitting all the way to the left, next to William, next to me with Tommy, who had crawled on my lap, and Mom was sitting all the way at the end. We were all wearing giant smiles. Mom wasn’t sick yet. It was one of the best days of my life. I cropped Mom out of the photo and showed the picture to Dad.

 

Dad started openly crying when he saw the photo. “This is my...my family?”

 

“Yeah. That’s us.”

 

“Who’s that?” Dad pointed to William. Of course he didn’t recognize his aged son.

 

“That’s William.”

 

“Who’s William?” Had they not met yet? I thought they had met when William was ten, which was this year. I didn’t care about messing up the timeline anymore, since it had all gone awry, but I didn’t want Dad to know he had a son he’d never meet. 

 

“Just know that he’s going to love you. And we’re going to love him.” Dad seemed confused, but then asked the question I knew must’ve been on his mind. “Who’s your mom?”

 

He stared at me with such intensity, like he just had to know the answer to that question. I could answer it, maybe make him happy that in some alternate timeline he and Mom would get married. But I thought about how I’d feel if someone told me that Don and I were destined to be married, except I was going to die before it ever happened. It would break my heart.

 

“It’s best that I don’t tell you who Mom is.”

 

“Oh.” Dad looked so disappointed. I closed out of the photo and put the tablet down, again lighting the room properly. “But she was a good mom to you guys?”

 

I thought back to all of the great times Mom and I had. Her failed attempts at cooking for us, all the nights she let me stay up late teaching me all about computers, the look of pride on her face when I built the first one, even all of the shenanigans we got up into at the hospital when she was feeling up to it. “She was the best,” I replied, with a hint of a smile lighting my face. 

 

“Good.” Our conversation was slowing down as we got colder. I began shivering again. Dad moved so that he was sitting next to me, and put an arm around me. He flipped my hood up and tucked it around my head protectively. He rubbed his arm vigorously up and down my arm.

 

“We’re going to die here,” I said matter-of-factly.

 

“You can’t know that.”

 

“I know we’re in a situation there’s no way out of. I know that if you die, Tommy and I die.”

 

“Let’s think about a way out. Tell me about this speedster-what are his weaknesses?”

 

“Well, he’s not technically a speedster. He uses a drug that makes it seem like he’s a speedster. But it seems like he’s only taking it in small doses to make sure it doesn’t affect him too much. The drug messes with your mind. He’s a psychopath.”

 

“Okay, so maybe we can catch him when he’s not speeding around.”

 

“He seems to be able to take the drug whenever he wants for speed. If he wants to be fast, he will be.”

 

“Is there a way we can use the drug against him? Counter the effects?”

 

“We don’t have anything to counter the effects.” But maybe there was something else we could do. What exactly was making it deadly? The speed itself clearly wasn’t the problem-he was using that just fine. There must have been a side effect of the drug that was causing the problem. Why was it so hard to think? What was I thinking about? The biostimulant. What if that was why the speedster wanted the biostimulant? Maybe there was something in the biostimulant that could counteract it. The biostimulant enabled cellular regeneration-meaning that the speedster drug caused cellular degeneration! “We need something that can hasten the effects of cellular degeneration. We need him to use the drug more - create a situation where he needs to use speed more and more.”

 

“Like an attack on two sides?”

 

“Exactly! He’s not that good of a fighter, and….” It was becoming more and more difficult to think straight. Everything was getting fuzzy. Maybe if I just closed my eyes for a second-

 

“Ryder, you have to stay awake.” Dad shook me gently, but then more roughly. “You can’t fall asleep, honey.”

 

I had stopped shivering. I was feeling tingles all over my body. It wouldn’t be so cold if I just fell asleep, would it? My dad’s voice sounded so far away now.

 

“Wake up. Ryder, wake-” Too late. I was gone.


	31. Chapter 31

I was back in the crowded theater where the magic show was being performed. I was sitting down with Tommy on my lap, and William and Mom next to me. A stranger was just handing Mom her phone back from taking our picture. 

 

“Wouldn’t you be more comfy in your own seat, buddy?” I asked Tommy. “The show’s about to start.”

 

“No, I want to stay here with you.” And he cuddled up even closer to me, latching his arms around my neck. 

 

“Buddy, you’re crushing your sister. Come over here.” William patted his own lap to emphasize his point. 

 

“No! I want to stay with sissy forever and ever!” 

 

“Yeah, honey, stay here,” Mom told me. No, that wasn’t right. She never say that, not for real. Then it hit me: this wasn’t real. “Stay here with me and your brother. After all, the show’s about to start.”

 

I looked around for Dad, to ask him what to do, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.

 

“No, I need to go back. Tommy needs me.” I looked down, and saw that Tommy was no longer on my lap. No William beside me. There was no one in the auditorium but me and Mom. “I can’t stay.”

 

“It’s cold out there. It’s cold and it’s hard, and you’re not going to be okay.”

 

“I can’t stay here and know that everyone I love isn’t going to be okay, either.”

 

“You could be happy here. Tommy could be happy here. Those responsibilities are only ones you put on yourself.”

 

“They’re mine to bear. They’re my destiny.”

 

“And who says you have a destiny? It could all be made up!”

 

That’s when I understood. I understood what it all meant. “I say I have a destiny! I say that I am a hero, and I say that I am going to save my brother!” I stood up, intent on walking on of the theater. 

 

Mom looked down, defeated, and whispered, “I never asked for you to be a hero.”

 

I looked down at her. “You never had to ask.”

 

And I woke up.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

I was still in Dad’s arms. He was violently shivering now. 

 

“Dad?” I asked groggily.

 

“Oh, Ryder, oh, thank goodness.” 

 

“We’re going to-” But before I could finish that thought, a burst of hot air invaded my senses. Someone had opened the door. A very irate speedster. 

 

“Queenie, I have to say I’m quite impressed. Although, not quite impressed enough to spare your brother.” And we were sped off somewhere else.

 

We were in another large, open room, who knows where. I started shaking out my arms and legs as the blood started flowing into them again. My ears ached from the sudden transition, making it hard to hear. It looked like Dad was having difficulty as well. Apparently the sudden temperature change combined with the speed had given him need to sit with his head between his legs. 

 

“I have to say, Queenie, I’m astounded. When I realized I was a year off in my time jump, I thought for sure you’d never be able to figure it out. But you came through with a marvelous effort. It just wasn’t good enough, I’m afraid.”

 

“Where’s Tommy?” I didn’t see him anywhere.

 

“Patience. Young people these days don’t seem to have time for anything, not even a well-earned compliment.” 

 

I didn’t have the patience for this. I drew my bow and nocked an arrow. “Where. Is. My. Brother?”

 

“Where is my working biostimulant?”

 

“I gave you the microchip. Stop playing games!”

 

“No! You gave me a functioning implantable biostimulant for a human! Did you even take speedster physiology into account?”

 

“Stop fooling around. You’re not a speedster.”

 

He sped into my face. “Let’s see who’s not a speedster now, shall we?” We sped off.

 

I didn’t know where we were or where we were going. We just seemed to be speeding around aimlessly. It didn’t really bother me, but I was concerned where Momentum was going to drop me. We were on a high cliff, as Momentum dangled me off the edge. 

 

“Am I a speedster now?” He sped me to the water’s edge and held me under. Once I felt like I couldn’t breath anymore, he pulled me out and asked again, “How about now?”

 

We raced along again. I landed on my knees. We were back in the room. He held a vibrating hand up to my dad’s heart. “Am I speedster enough for you now?”

 

“Yes, you’re a speedster! Just let him go.” And he did. I glanced at my forsaken bow and arrow on the ground where I had just been. It was too dangerous to even reach for them. Dad, however, had no hesitation nocking an arrow and aiming it at Momentum. 

 

“If you touch her one more time, I will sink this arrow through your heart.”

 

“Now, now, Daddy dearest, don’t be hasty. I’ve still got your sonny boy.” Dad lowered his bow just slightly. “Now, here’s how it’s going to go. I’m going to kill your brother in front of you, and you’re going to watch. That sounds fun, doesn’t it?”

 

He sped Tommy into the room. He was no longer in chains, instead just slumped on the floor, still unconscious. Dad didn’t hesitate. He let his arrow fly. Momentum caught it, then ran up to Dad at normal speed. As he did, something fell out of his suit and dropped on the floor. He and Dad were engaged in a battle, with Momentum only using his speed enough to dodge Dad’s blows. He was clearly coming off the drug. He would need another dose to sustain himself. 

 

I glanced what Momentum had dropped. It looked like a vial, with a needle attached. Seeing that Dad and Momentum were about equal in their fight, I crawled over to where the vial was. It was a reddish liquid.  _ The speed drug _ . 

 

It felt like time had slowed down. There was only me and the drug. A thousand thoughts raced through my head in that one second. I could save Tommy. I could save everyone. I could be a speedster, even if only for a few minutes. That would give me all the advantage I needed over Momentum.  And if he had more of the drug in his suit, I would need that advantage. I was the better fighter, we both knew it.. What would Dad, my Dad, want me to do? Of course he’d want me to take it. Being who I was wasn’t going to be enough. I had to be something else. 

 

I looked up and saw that my dad was still fighting with the speedster. The speedster had him in a choke hold, and he was facing me. At that moment, he saw me, and must’ve understood what was going on. 

 

“Ryder, no! This isn’t the way!”

 

“It’s the only way! I have to save Tommy!”

 

The speedster slightly lessened his hold on Dad. “Yes, Queenie, take the drug. Become a speedster. Become me.”

 

I stared at the vial I held in my hand. It would be so easy. I would win. Tommy would be safe.

 

“Ryder, I’m sorry! I never should’ve made you think that you weren’t good enough. I never should’ve put that burden on you. Not when it’s mine.” 

 

I held the vial tightly in my fist. No, it wasn’t my burden. It wasn’t Dad’s, either. I smashed the vial.

 

I grabbed my abandoned bow and arrow and shot Momentum. He sped out of the way, but he’d clearly burned through the drug. The arrow landed in his arm. 

 

“It’s both of our responsibilities. We’re family, and that means we all take care of each other. Together.” 

 

Momentum tore the arrow out of his arm. He was clearly seething. The blood loss wasn’t going to help him much with that. “Silly girl, you lost your chance! I’ll show you what it means to be a real metahuman!” He pressed two fingers against his wrist, and stiffened, taking a deep breath. He had taken more of the drug. 

 

I launched another arrow, which he quickly dodged, leaving him open to a punch from my dad. I ran up and joined in on my dad’s close quarters fight. This was it. My dad and I double-teaming the speedster, forcing him to use the drug at an accelerated rate. Usually my battles against Momentum didn’t last this long; he’d have run away by now. He wasn’t used to having to use this much of the drug. We continued our assault as Momentum continued to use his speed. If anything, it seemed like he was getting faster.

 

We were unrelenting. Where he avoided one of our attacks, the other of us had another one waiting. Dad may not have been used to my fighting style yet, but I knew his like the back of my hand. Fighting together was natural. 

 

Momentum began punching the air wildly, faster and faster. It was almost as if he were losing control.    
  


“Fall back!” I called. We did not want to be in the way of a speedster going berserk. 

 

Slowly, his body disintegrated into blue sparks, until only his suit remained crumpled on the floor. 

 

Dad turned to me. “What just happened?”

 

I smiled. “We won.”


	32. Chapter 32

I sprinted to Tommy, shaking him. “Hey, buddy, you have to wake up.” No response. He was breathing and he had a pulse, though. Dad ran up next to me.

 

I searched through Tommy’s pockets, taking out his EpiPen and his inhaler. EpiPens had adrenaline in them.  _ Let’s hope this works _ . I shot Tommy in the leg with it. Tommy took a giant gasp and came to, coughing.

 

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here,” I said, rubbing his shoulder. I grabbed his inhaler, opened it, and held it up to his mouth. He clutched my hands and took deep breaths. “That’s it, you got this.”

 

After he was done, he stared at me with his clear blue eyes. I felt my own eyes start to tear up. This is the longest I had ever gone without being able to look into his eyes and it had physically hurt me. Looking at them now was like a balm rushing all throughout my veins, warming up my still-cold blood. 

 

“Ryder!” He launched into my arms, and I caught him, giving the biggest hug. “You saved me! But Momentum-”

 

“He’s gone. He’s dead. You’re safe now.”

 

After a few minutes of hanging on tight, Tommy finally let go of me. When he drew back, he saw Dad out of the corner of his eye. “Dad!” And he launched himself into Dad’s arms. Dad caught him uneasily, but didn’t seem willing to let go once he was used to the weight of Tommy in his arms.

 

“Hey, buddy. I’m glad you’re safe.” I didn’t have the heart to tell Tommy right now that this wasn’t Dad, not really. He needed his father right now, and I wasn’t one to deny him that. I knew I had taken advantage of the same weakness. 

 

When he finally let go of Dad, he squinted at him. “You shaved. And you dyed your hair and...oh.” Tommy’s face sunk. He had figured out something was up.

 

I grabbed Tommy and turned him towards me. “Tommy, we time travelled. We’re in the past. Dad hasn’t had us yet. But I told him all about how awesome you are and he helped me rescue you.”

 

Tommy, ever the gentleman, stuck out his hand for Dad to shake. “Hi, Dad, I’m Tommy.”

 

Dad chuckled. “Hi, Tommy, it’s nice to meet you. I’m really excited that I’m going to be your dad someday.”

 

“Good. Because I really like being your son.” Dad started tearing up again. 

 

This was all well and good, but having Dad and Tommy interact anymore probably wasn’t a great idea. “Hey, guys, we really need to get going. We’re very close to creating a paradox and my boyfriend’s dad will kill me if I do that.”

 

“Boyfriend?” Now my dad’s ears perked up. “He better not have been born yet, because if so, he’s way too old for you.”

 

I had to laugh. “That never stopped you from trying to set me and John up.”

 

Dad gave me a confused look. “I did what now?” Then he seemed to contemplate it. “Actually, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. The Queen and Diggle families finally uniting.”

 

Tommy and I glanced at each other and rolled our eyes. Looks like some things never changed.


	33. Chapter 33

I led Dad and Tommy outside, where my tablet could get better signal. Turns out we were still in Star City. Dad asked me to call Mom for a ride. I suggested that Mom might be busy with work, and called Dig instead. No reason to let Tommy see Mom. 

 

“Now, Tommy, you have to pretend like you don’t know Dig. You can do that, right?”

 

“Yeah, I can do that.”

 

Dad seemed confused. “Why? He’s my son, of course he knows my best friend.”

 

I sighed. “Because we can’t just go around telling everyone that Tommy is your son. Or that I’m your daughter. We’re tiptoeing on creating a paradox as it is; I don’t want any more mistakes.”

 

Dad looked hurt. “You think telling me all of this was a mistake?”

 

Not what I meant. “No, of course not. I just...I need to keep things in control. You can understand that, can’t you?”

 

Dad didn’t respond, but I knew he was okay with it. Keeping parts of his life separate from each other was one of his strengths, after all. Dig came by in the van, and we all climbed in, me and Tommy in the back. 

 

Tommy seemed hesitant to sit down at first. He directed his problem at Dad. “This van doesn’t have seat belts. What if we get in an accident?”

 

Dad looked at me for help. “Don’t worry buddy, my friend is a very safe driver.” I grabbed him and tucked him in the side of the van, near some cardboard boxes storing who knows what. 

 

Dig looked at me in the rearview mirror. “I see you got your brother back. Does that mean our future speedster’s gone for good?”

 

“Yes. We won’t be hearing from him any longer.”

 

Dig smiled. “I knew you’d work it out.”

 

Dad and Dig made small talk for the rest of the way home, and I occupied Tommy with rock paper scissors. Finally, we were back at the bunker. We climbed down the stairs and found Mom waiting for us at her desk. 

 

“Oliver Queen, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.” She pointed at her computer display indicating that she had, in fact, pinged his cell phone and who knows what else. Tommy opened his mouth to say something, but I quickly put my hand over his mouth and restrained him from running toward her. She stood up to walk toward Dad and Tommy’s eyes become like saucers. He had no memory of her ever being able to walk. 

 

I leaned down and whispered in his ear. “You have to pretend that she’s not our mom, okay? I know it’s hard, but we both have to do it.” Tommy nodded, and I uncovered his mouth. 

 

Dad and Mom looked like they had finished their conversation about his whereabouts. Mom looked at Tommy. “So this is your little brother? He’s cute.” She extended her hand. “Hi, I’m Felicity.”

 

“Hi, I’m-” I coughed. “I’m Robbie. It’s nice to meet you.” Good boy. 

 

Felicity looked back at me. “So you can go home now? I mean, back to the future? Wow, I’ve always wanted to say that.” I nodded. “How do you plan on getting home? No more speedster means no more time travel, right?”

 

“A Traveller always has a back-up plan. And in this case, I’m going to call one of my friends to come get me. I was hoping I could interface my tablet with any kind of satellite network you may be hacked into to boost the signal?”

 

“Would the NSA network work?”

 

I smiled. “Perfect.” Dad just rolled his eyes. 

 

I walked over to Mom’s work station, with Tommy trailing me. I heard Mom talking to Dad. “So now this little kid knows your secret identity, and that doesn’t bother you? I thought you had very strict rules.”

 

“He already knew who I was. Apparently Anna told him at some point.”

 

“Huh.”

 

It didn’t take me long to make all the connections I needed. Tommy watched in awe. He wasn’t as good with computers as I was, but he was learning. Mom hadn’t been able to teach him as much when she was sick, so the task fell to me. It wasn’t always high on my list of priorities, but I tried to talk out loud when I was doing my tasks. I did the same now, whispering the connections I was making and the codes I was using. 

 

Now it was just a matter of who I wanted to contact. Mr. Allen would probably be pissed I had jumped through the time portal without calling for help first. Frankie would be mad I hadn’t invited her on the adventure. The Legends would probably see it as an inconvenience to have to pick up their teenage friend from the past. But Don wouldn’t judge me. Don would always come for me, wherever I was. I texted a contemporaneous version of him a location and a time half an hour from now. I knew he’d come. 

 

I turned around to face the growing crowd of adults. I saw now that Laurel and Roy were there as well, getting ready for the night’s outing. 

 

“I sent a friend of mine a location to come pick me up. He’ll be ready in half an hour.” 

 

Dad nodded. “Dig and I can take you where you need to go, and we’ll swing by to pick up the Ducati on the way back.” Dig nodded at the plan.

 

That meant all that was left were my good-byes. I started with a handshake for Roy. “Thanks for your advice. Turns out you were right.”

 

“I always am.”

 

Then a handshake for Laurel. “It was good to meet you.”

 

“You, too. And I hear you made a pretty good Black Canary.” If only that were the case. There would never be one like Laurel Lance.

 

A hug for Mom. “Thanks for all the help with the inventions. Oh,” and I pulled the ATOM gauntlet out, “here’s your gauntlet back. Tell Dr. Palmer thanks.”

 

“No problem. Happy coding!” I smiled at that.

 

Digg and Dad led Tommy and me up the stairs and into the van. We rode in silence as I directed Dig to an open tract of land. If Dig recognized it as the site where I first fought Momentum, he didn’t say anything. I climbed toward the front and shook Dig’s hand.

 

“Thanks for everything. And take good care of John.”

 

“You can count on it.”

 

I climbed out of the van, bringing Tommy with me. Dad got out, too, and we walked a bit until we got to the correct lot. 

 

“Any particular reason you chose this spot?”

 

I smiled. “Nah, just thought it was pretty. Plus this seems like a nice tree.” Tommy laughed. 

 

Oliver looked at the two of us. “How long?”

 

“How long until what?”

 

“How long until I get to meet you?”

 

“We’ll be here before you know it.” William especially. 

 

“I’m so proud of you. Of both of you. You’re so strong, and you take care of each other. That’s all I could ever want.” Dad was tearing up again, and I was trying not to. Tommy was beginning to cry. Dad knelt down next to me. “Hey, buddy, it’s alright. I’m going to be waiting for you on the other side.”

 

“But-” I had to cut him off before he’d say whatever he was going to say.

 

“We know.”

 

Dad suddenly looked nervous. “Any advice for the future?”

 

“Just be yourself. That’s all either of us want.” Dad nodded. I heard a crack of thunder in the distance.  _ Don _ . “It’s time for you to go.”

 

Dad reached for Tommy and gave him a big hug. Then he stood up and gave me the same. It felt amazing. It had really been too long. “Good-bye.”

 

“Bye, Dad.” I let a few tears out, figuring it was family after all.

 

“Bye, Dad. We love you.” Tommy waved. 

 

Dad backed toward the van until he had to turn around and walk towards it. He got in the van, waved again, and Dig drove off. Once they were gone, Don sped into sight. 

 

“Hey, guys. Long time no see?”

 

“It’s been about a week.”

 

He whistled. “Wow. What kind of trouble did you two get yourselves into this time?”

 

“I got kidnapped!” Tommy said proudly. 

 

“Really? By whom?”

 

“Momentum,” I answered. Don’s face darkened. “I’ll tell you all about it when we get back. Right now, we really want to go home.”

 

“One ride to 2037, coming right up!” Tommy and I wrapped one arm each around Don’s waist, and away we sped. Home. 


	34. Chapter 34

Don had sped us straight into the bunker. Dad looked up and saw us. “Ryder, I thought you were on patrol.” Then he saw Tommy. “Tommy, why aren’t you at home?” Then Dad’s confusion slowly melted away. 

 

“You were in 2015, weren’t you?” 

 

I turned to Don. “Honey, could you give us some time? I’ll text you.”

 

“You got it.” He kissed me on the cheek, ruffled Tommy’s hair, and sped off. 

 

Dad came toward us, giving each one of us a big hug. Man, we were being quite the affectionate family as of late. “Tommy, can you go play while your sister tells me what happens?” Tommy nodded and quickly ran off to find his action figures.

 

“Grab a refiller for your inhaler and a new EpiPen!” I shouted in his direction. He quickly detoured to the correct drawer and grabbed the items before darting away again. 

 

Dad smiled at me and led me over to the central console. We both took a seat. “I’ve been dying to talk to you about 2015 since you were born. I just never knew when the right time was going to be. Then, I guess I forgot the lessons I learned there and...I didn’t become the father I wanted to be.”

 

“Dad, you’re the best father ever. I wouldn’t want you to be different.”

 

“No, listen. The night that you and Tommy were attacked by that assassin...it was the night we got your mother’s test results back. I wasn’t in a good headspace. I always thought about protecting Tommy and your mother and the city, but I saw you as the strong one. Like me. When I saw that you were unable to protect Tommy, I saw it as my inability to protect your mother. I took all of my rage out on you, and...I’m sorry. I never should’ve done that to a scared little girl.”

 

“But that’s the thing Dad-I wasn’t a scared little girl. I needed that push to become capable of what I am now. To be the person who could save my brother from Momentum. That’s a part of my destiny.”

 

“When I saw you just now, mothering Tommy...that’s not what I want for you. You’ve been shut down in this bunker your whole life. I want thing to be different from now on. I don’t want to feel as if you owe it to me or to anyone else to be part of this life.”

 

“I’ll admit that sometimes this life felt forced upon me. But this mission has taught me a lot, and I’ve decided that I want it. I want to be strong and able to protect this city, just like you. Together.”

 

Dad smiled. “I’d like that.” 

 

Sometimes life gets messy and complicated. People we love get hurt and things aren’t okay. But just pushing past it and steeling ourselves isn’t the way we deal with those things. We deal with it by being hurt, and vulnerable, and saying we need help. And together we work through it. All my life I’ve been obsessed with keeping the people around me safe, and they ended up getting hurt anyway. And that somehow became my fault. Not anymore. I accept that people around me getting hurt is just a part of being human. It’s out of my control. But what I can do is fight to protect who I still have, while I still have them. 

 

My name is Ryder Laurel Queen, and I am part of Team Arrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's all I have for this story. I have a companion story planned that I'll start posting tomorrow, and I'm thinking about writing a sequel to this one. I think there are enough unanswered questions to warrant one. Would that be something anyone would want to read?


End file.
